To Bring You Back
by ice73
Summary: The second part of The Cat Requests A Favour. A short story in which Haru Yoshioka and Shizuku Amasawa's fates are resolved.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** All characters © their respective authors and entities. This work is not intended for commercial gain.

**PROLOGUE**

Once more she was back in the Black Cat's chamber. Once more there were the sounds of fighting around her, and once more the Baron and his fiancée lay dead on the hard rock floor. His blood was warm on her pants as she talked to the black-haired woman in the red sweater and short yellow skirt, who was kneeling beside her.

"I didn't make it to the hospital."

"You mean you're d—"

"Yes. That's why every time I kept healing someone else, I disappeared. That's why I never turned into a cat, because the Cat Kingdom magic has no effect on a ghost. I'm surprised you never asked me why I gained magic powers here, when you never did." The woman sighed. "I'm existing on sheer willpower, Haru. I don't want to leave yet. There's still so much—"

"You... but what about Seiji-sensei?"

"He doesn't know about this. I think I created this image of him to keep me company here." The woman lowered her gaze. "My real husband is back in my world. The last thing I remember is falling asleep in his arms while he was crying. I was trying to finish my story at his friend's house, because I somehow knew that day that I wasn't going to last much longer... I don't know what he's doing now. There are things that are still unclear even to me. But what I do know is that I can restore Baron and Louise to you." Her hand closed around the bluestone in her palm. "When I first came to the Cat Kingdom I didn't know who I really was or what I was doing there. Then gradually it all came back to me. The final pieces fell into place in a dream I had at Fort Lorum, just before we left for this island. That was why I changed my mind and persuaded Baron not to let you accompany him, because I was worried about you." She let out a guilty sigh. "It all so involving, so dramatic, so heart-breaking... so fun playing along. It was like being in a make-believe game, only the game was all around me. But now..."

"You're lying! I don't believe you!"

"Search your heart. You know it to be true." The woman looked up, and her dark eyes bored into Haru's. "I made you everything I never was: you are also the girl-child I never had. When I sent you into your first adventure in the Cat Kingdom, you proved yourself brave enough, a worthy person to pair with the Baron. And yet, look at us. We're both stubborn as donkeys, willful and disobedient."

She suddenly clasped Haru's right hand. "But everything's going to end now, Haru. You are going to live and be happy. If I have sinned against you and everyone else, I am going to rectify that now. Maybe just... think of me once in a while?" A tremulous smile appeared on her lips, then quickly vanished.

"Shizuku..."

"Beginning to understand, eh? Think about this: why should Baron be the only person I had a hand in creating?"

Everything fell into place. Haru reached out to stop her, and a powerful blast of magic lifted her off her feet and sent her flying across the Black Cat's chamber...

"Sensei! No!"

------oOo------

Haru Yoshioka bolted upright in her bed, panting. After a moment of confusion her eyes adjusted to the darkness of her moonlit room.

_It was just a dream,_ she told herself. _Just a dream._ She wiped her forehead, and her hand came away slick with sweat. Reaching past her nightstand to a nearby chair, she yanked her towel off its backrest and wiped her face with it. Then she tossed it back and lay on her pillows, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the silence settling over everything like a thick blanket.

_Just a dream. It was all just a dream. But Shizuku-sensei was real. Baron and Muta and Toto are real._ _I wonder, is _this_ real?_ A moment of panic crossed her mind._ Am _I _real?_


	2. The Gift

**THE RED STRAW HAT PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS  
'TO BRING YOU BACK,'  
BEING THE SECOND PART OF  
'THE CAT REQUESTS A FAVOUR,'  
WHEREIN SHIZUKU AND HARU'S FATES  
ARE RESOLVED**

**Author's Note:** Yes, I'm back, if only to finish what I started. To understand this story you must have read 'The Cat Requests A Favour,' and be familiar with pretty much the entire Ghibli milieu. Perhaps this will be my Christmas story as well, since I don't think I can write one separate from this. There's simply no time left. Hope you enjoy. As always, comments and corrections are welcome.  


* * *

**THE GIFT**

"Oof! Hey, Baron, let me have a look!"

"In a moment."

"Tell us what's happening."

"Hey, don't hog the entire branch, fatso."

"There's lots of other branches, Moon."

"Yeah, but this is the only one with a good view of Haru's house."

"Oh, do tell us what's happening, Baron. I'm so worried about her."

"Well, Luna," replied the Cat, adjusting the spyglass he held to his right eye, "they're still fighting. They're still in the middle of the living room. Oh, don't, Haru! Oh, good."

"What happened? Lemme see!" Muta, annoyed, tried to snatch the telescope up, but the Baron kept it out of his reach.

"She was about to slap Machida."

Muta made an irritated sound by blowing through pursed lips. "I feel like I'm watching my favorite sumo wrestler from the furthest row of seats," he groused. "Ouch! Moon, would you mind your claws? You're not that light, you know."

"Sorry," the black cat perched on his back apologized.

The Baron, a set expression on his face, held the telescope out to his side. Muta yanked it from his hand and squinted.

"Aw, it's over!" he exclaimed, after watching for a bit. "Machida's walking out. He just slammed the door." He shifted his view. "Uh-oh."

"Oh-oh, indeed," said the Cat, tugging his gloves so they sat more snugly on his hands. "I think we'd better get over there."

"Why? What happened?" asked Luna, who, being the lightest of them all, was sitting on the end of the cypress branch furthest from the trunk. "I could hardly see anything, we're so far away."

"I'm not sure, but I fear the worst."

"What about her mother?" asked Moon.

"She's gone away, remember?"

"Oh, yeah."

The call of a child made them look down. A little girl of about eight was standing under the tree, looking up at them. Baron Humbert von Jikkingen gave her a smile and a wave.

The little girl called for her mommy once more, and a woman in an apron came out from the nearby house's back door and walked to her, wiping her hands on a yellow hand towel as she did so.

"What is it, Mi-chan?"

"Mama, is this tree that _neko-jarashi_ you told me about?"

"Eh? Oh, no, no, no. _Neko-jarashi_ looks like a rice plant." She patted her daughter's head. "Why do you ask?"

"'Cause there sure are a lot of cats up in it," Mi-chan answered.

"What?" The woman looked up and squinted. "There's nothing up there."

"Oh?" Mi-chan looked. The branch where the funny Mr. Cat with the clothes was standing talking to his friends was empty. "But there were cats up there, I swear!"

"I'm sure there were, but they're gone now. Maybe your voice scared them away." Mi-chan's mommy gently turned her around. "Come inside, it's time to eat." As she ushered her daughter back into their home she took one last look at the cypress, looming old and large in the night in their small back yard, then closed the door.

------oOo------

The Baron tapped a glass pane on the door. Haru looked up from the couch, her face a study in deep thought. Lifting his hat in greeting, the cat nobleman stepped back and waited until she had opened the entrance.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Someone might see you!"

"May we come in?" the Cat asked, looking up at her in his usual dignified manner as he removed his gray top hat and tucked it underneath one arm.

"'We'?"

The Baron gave a whistle, and three felines, one large and white with a brown ear and the other two sleek and lithe and black as jet, came running in from behind the fence in front of Haru's house. They all stopped and sat in front of her.

"_Haru,_" asked one in a lisping female voice, "_genki?_"

Haru sighed and closed her eyes. She turned away. "Come in, come in."

Muta pushed the door shut as the Baron said, "Haru... are you alright?"

Haru suddenly turned right back around, and she had her hands clasped together and a dreamily blissful expression on her face.

"I'm more than alright," she announced. "I'm so happy!"

"Wha—?" The cats looked at each other.

"But I thought–" the Cat said, baffled.

"But Baron said–" Muta wondered at the same time.

Moon pointed with a paw. "You're not angry or sad, Haru?"

"What? No, of course not!" Her eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute. What's this all about? Less than five minutes after Kei-chan's left, you guys show up. What's going on?"

"We were spying on you from a block away," Muta explained baldly. Luna shoved an elbow into his ribs. "Ow! It's the truth."

"We were walking here when we saw Machida's car pass by and figured he was coming to visit," the Baron said. "We didn't want to disturb you two, so we climbed a tree and watched what we could from there."

"You did what?" spulttered Haru, her voice rising, her cheeks turning the most charming shade of reddish-pink. "Y-you busybodies! So I suppose you saw us... kissing?"

"What?" The Baron's brow-whiskers went up. He looked at his companions for confirmation. "No, we didn't."

"We must've climbed too late to catch the good stuff," Moon commented, making a _tsk-tsk_ sound. "Thanks to a certain one-ton cat who refuses to go on a diet."

Muta scowled and folded his arms. "Oh, sure, blame me again. It's my fault I was born big. If you weren't so weak and scrawny–"

"You mean you weren't fighting with your Kei?" Luna interrupted, hopping onto the living-room couch. Haru sat down beside her.

"No!" She petted the tabby, who snuggled closer to her. Everyone else took it as a signal that they could also sit on the couch, so the three guys also jumped onto it. The Cat, of course, was careful not to let his shoes touch the fabric. He sat on the armrest and let his feet dangle.

"In fact," Haru continued, "we made up. He said he forgave me, but only if I wouldn't do it again."

The Baron shifted uneasily. "Oh. I... we thought you had broken up. I thought you were going to slap him at one point."

"Huh? Oh, no, we were just acting out a play we did in senior high, about a samurai who felt it was his duty to serve his lord, and his wife, who didn't want him to go and get killed. I fell _so_ in love with him at that time, he was so handsome..."

Luna turned and stared at the Cat with her large amber eyes. "Couldn't you read the expressions on their faces? That would've given everything away."

"No, my spyglass isn't that sharp." The Cat looked up at Haru. It was so strange but typical, seeing the young lady who had become his temporary girlfriend looming large on the couch in her blue polo and faded jeans. He could still remember the kisses they gave each other... and Louise's scowling face as she talked to him about it.

"Then how come Machida slammed the front door, Haru?"

"Hmm? Oh, he's always like that when he's in a hurry. He said he had to get back to his parents' factory. He's apprenticing under his father, you know." She ran her hand idly over the back of Muta's neck. "We have so little time for each other nowadays..."

"Speaking of time," Muta said, shivering a little under Haru's touch, "tell her why we came here, Baron."

"Oh? Ah, yes, thanks for reminding me. We'd like you to come to the Cat Business Office with us."

"Now?"

"Well, yes. I figure now would be the perfect time, since you told me last week your mother's going to be away today and tomorrow."

"What for?"

"It's a surprise."

"Really?"

"Yes, the perfect accompaniment to such a joyful occasion," said Moon, placing his front paws on Haru's jeans and beginning to do a claws-in, claws-out tattoo on the delightfully catchy surface. "Please, come with us."

"Well, sure, I'll go. Let me just lock up first, and we can leave." Haru winced and grinned at the same time as Moon's claws stuck into her skin. "Naughty cat, stop that. You're tickling me."

"Oh, really? Gee, that looks like fun." Luna leapt onto the couch's backrest and proceeded to do the same thing to Haru's polo shirt, just below the collar.

"Hey! Stop that!" Haru giggled.

Muta nonchalantly joined in the entertainment, giving the opposite leg of her jeans the same prickly attention. Her giggles turned into outright laughter, and she twitched and squirmed.

"Stop! Help, Baron!"

"Enough, gents and lady," the Cat ordered. "Come on, it's getting late. Have you eaten?"

"Yes, with Machida. Oh, but where are my manners?" Haru exclaimed as the cats stopped their torture. She smoothed out her abused clothes. "Would you care for tea or something, you guys?"

"No, we've got everything ready at the office," said Luna. "Don't worry about that. Now go and get dressed, there's a good girl."

As Haru skipped up the stairs to her room, Luna turned to the Baron. "Well, well. Misread the situation, oh fearless leader of ours?"

The Baron put his top hat back on. "Yes, you're right. It wouldn't be the first time, would it? I really don't care. I'm just glad she and Machida are getting back together."

"Yeah," Moon chirruped. "It's nice how some guys are so forgiving, isn't it?"

"More like gullible," muttered Muta, leaping off—sliding off like a lump of slow-moving cholesterol was more like it—the couch.

The Baron gave him a sharp look. Muta just raised a brow at him, ambled to the glass-paned doors, and opened them.

------oOo------

There was a low, dark-brown, human-sized table set up on a carpet on the flagstones in front of the Cat Business Office. It was getting cool back home, but here the weather was still fine and balmy. The stars were twinkling in the sky; the lights of the plaza and the buildings gave the surroundings a homely and welcoming yellow glow.

Moon told Haru to take a seat, and she knelt down on a pillow.

"Everything okay?" asked the Cat. She nodded. "Good. Come on, Muta. Let's go get the cake. I promise we won't be long." The two left, disappearing round a corner.

Luna emerged from the interior of the Office, balancing a too-large cup and saucer in her arms. "T-t-tea, Haru?" she stuttered, swaying.

Before a disaster involving broken china, scalded skin and punctured egos could occur, Haru snatched the cup and saucer from her. "Yes, please." She took a sniff. "Baron's special blend?"

"Yup," Moon answered as he and Luna began bustling about. Soon six places were set at the table, and six red cushions also awaited their sitters.

Haru watched in amusement as the black cat twins finished their task. "What's the occasion?"

"Secret. All I can tell you is you're the guest of honor for this little get-together of ours."

"Yes, she is indeed," a new voice said from inside the Cat Business Office. A figure in a maroon walking hat with feathery pink flume pinned in the side, a traveling cloak, and a full-skirted, lace-fringed, long-sleeved dress of the same color emerged.

"Baroness!" Despite the small size of Humbert von Jikkingen's fiancée own, something compelled Haru to get to her feet.

"No, no, please," Louise protested, motioning for her to sit back down even as she got up. "I'm pleased to see you again, young lady."

"L-likewise," said Haru.

"Well, since you've taken the trouble of getting to your feet, might I suggest we head over there?" Louise gestured at Toto's empty column in the middle of the square. The crow still hadn't come back from his trip to Europe.

"What for?"

"I want to talk to you."

Inwardly Haru quailed. She remembered the last time they had 'talked.' Louise was still the evil Black Cat, but the Doctor had released her and allowed her control of her body, and she had slapped and shaken and berated Haru so hard she thought her death was surely going to be next. All because she had heard of the human female's relationship with the Cat.

They came to the column, still and gray under the stars. Louise removed her hat and used it to fan and lightly brush the flagstones clean—not that they needed any cleaning, but it never hurt to make sure.

"Come, sit," she said. "I don't want to raise my voice, as I don't want Humbert to hear what I have to say."

Haru sat down and, imitating the Baroness, leaned against the stone.

"There is little time. First of all, I wish to apologize for the way I treated you in Phaecis' lair. I know I have already done so, when we were still in Lune's kingdom," she said, raising a hand to forestall Haru, who was about to speak. "But I feel that I was not clear enough."

"It was clear enough to me," returned Haru. "And you had every right to be angry."

The Baroness smiled sadly at her much larger companion. "I guess I understand things a little better now. He _is_ wonderful, isn't he?"

"I... yes, he is."

"So much so that I believe I can understand you having feelings for him. But the superman—super cat, in this case—displays some cracks in his façade, doesn't he?" Louise looked up at the night sky.

"I have had a lot of time to think about it," she continued, "about what a lifetime of separation must have done to him, and how lonely he must have been. I find that I am no longer as angry as I was before at you."

"Baroness..."

"Please, just call me Louise. I notice none of you call him Humbert, and that you use his title as though it were his first name. To tell you the truth, I find it amusing. Why is that?"

"I guess we respect him too much to call him by his first name," Haru replied. "I've never done so, except when we were sparring, to rile him." She chuckled. "I was the one who got upset instead, when he refused to get irritated."

"Yes, that sounds like him," agreed Louise, smiling. "Well, Haru Yoshioka, I expect you're itching to get your claws around him again."

"What? Oh, no! We ended our relationship just before we went in to rescue you. And I mean it to stay that way. Besides..."

"Yes?"

"I've got my own problems with my boyfriend. He said that if he ever caught me doing something like that again, we were through."

"Oh, the possessive type, is he?"

"Yes."

"Men." There was a world of meaning in the single word the Baroness enunciated. "Sometimes they forget that we're not their chattels and have to be reminded of the fact. Sometimes with a kind word, sometimes with a wooden club."

"Can't live with them, can't live without them," Haru agreed shyly.

The two giggled, and Louise said, "I asked Humbert to assist you if you needed a hand with such things. I take it things are fine between you and your beau now?"

Haru nodded. "As fine as they can be, I guess."

"That is good. Haru, there's something I want to ask you so much, but I don't know how to word it properly. So—" she looked down at the flagstones "—I will say it out straight. Did you... do you really love him?"

It was Haru's turn to look away. "Yes."

"I... see."

"Louise," Haru said slowly, as if testing the word, "you have nothing to fear from me when it comes to Baron. When I accepted his proposal, I... was lonely and confused and a bit overwhelmed by him. It's become clear to me since then that a) it's you he really loves, and b) I was mixing obligation, gratefulness and friendship all together. I won't deny that I do have feelings for him. Were he to make a play for me like he did before, and you still weren't around and I hadn't mended fences with my boyfriend, I would probably accept. But if he were to do that tonight I'd resist, knowing that you're back in his life. But he'd never do such a thing! He simply loves you too much. The one you call Humbert has his weaknesses," Haru declared, "but when all is said and done he is still a gentleman of integrity."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I've had enough time to see—and test—that."

"In what way?"

"Eh?" Haru's cheeks colored, and she wished the lights around the plaza weren't so bright. "Well, um, we've kissed—and that's all we've done, I swear to you."

Louise hooded her large, light-blue-green eyes. She kept to herself for a moment.

"Anyone listening to us would think we were talking about a precious jewel, not a person."

"But isn't that what we look for?" asked Haru earnestly. "A gem that sparkles only for our eyes, even though we know we can't keep it forever? He's like that, I think. Show him to others, and he turns dull and staid, a stuffed shirt, a relic of another era. A self-sacrificing leader and nothing more."

"One could look at him that way, I guess," noted Louise, chuckling. "That would apply to me also."

"But we both know he isn't, don't we? That's why I can freely give him up, knowing that he'll be with you. I don't really feel I'm losing him, as I only borrowed him from you for a little while..."

Louise suddenly looked up at Haru with mild amusement in her eyes. "And I hope you're not Madame Loisiel, and have given me a replica made of paste because you lost the real necklace you borrowed!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing. I only hope you don't pay too much of a price for, as you say, giving him up."

"Oh, don't you worry about that. I'll live."

"I wish I had your mental discipline, then," Louise replied. "I cannot turn my heart on and off just like that. Are you sure about what you're saying, Haru?"

"Yes. To make sure of it, I've been keeping away from him and everyone else for the past month, aside from being busy with school."

"School? Ah, do tell me about that sometime. Aside from the little at the university, I never attended such a thing." The Baroness fell silent for a while. "I guess I'm trying to say that I... forgive you, and hope that you would do the same for me."

"Thank you, Louise. That means much to me. As for you, there's nothing for me to forgive, although the people you victimized might think otherwise."

"Too true. I've found that out the hard way, and have taken refuge in my estate as a result. Even a single person's forgiveness is important to me now, Haru. And as a token of my apology, I have something to give you. I think you'll find it rather interesting. But we'll have to do that later, because here comes Humbert now, and he's looking rather straight at us, don't you think?"

Louise stood up and brushed her skirt clean. "Not a word to him about this, okay?"

Haru followed suit. "My lips are sealed."

They arrived at the table the same time Muta and the Baron did. The latter two were pulling along a dolly bearing a luscious Black Forest cake. Haru eyed its gleaming frosting, generous shavings of chocolate, and the liquid shine of the cherries on top of it.

"That looks delicious," she said, suppressing the urge to lick her lips.

"Nothing but the best on this occasion," the Baron declared. He stepped aside so the twins could start slicing and serving.

"And what would that be?" asked Haru. "You've kept me in the dark so far."

"A little more patience, young lady. All will be revealed in due course."

"Yeah," rumbled Muta. "Right now all I want to do is eat."

Eat they did, with the twins sitting beside each other, the Baron beside Louise, and Muta on the end of the table opposite Haru. They exchanged lively chit-chat for an hour or so. Then, when everyone had finished eating (it was Muta who took so long finishing his portions off, as they were, well, suitably proportioned for him), they all went inside the Cat Business Office.

On a wall was a long green curtain with a drawstring beside it. Baron walked up to it.

"Now I shall reveal to you what's so special about today," he said. "I hope you like it." Everyone's eyes were shining with anticipation as he reached up and pulled the cord.

The green curtains parted to reveal a long glass case backed by red velvet. Inside, brass fittings golden in the lamplight supported a sword. Haru's smallsword, in a new scabbard.

"You left this in King Lune's castle," the Cat said. "So I decided to keep it safe, and do this."

Haru's eyes wandered down to the small plaque below the case. It read

吉岡 ハル  
名誉会員  
猫の事務所

HARU YOSHIOKA  
HONORARY MEMBER,  
CAT BUSINESS OFFICE

She gasped. "You really mean it, Baron?"

"Of course. I hope you like it."

"_We_ hope you like it," Muta corrected him.

The light was bright in Haru's eyes and her lips quivered as she desperately tried to keep from blubbering.

"I-it's wonderful," she stammered. "I wish Shizuku-sensei could be here to see it..." Haru shut her eyes tight, then gave up trying to conceal her feelings as a single tear escaped down the side of her face.

"Oh, thank you so much!" she suddenly shouted. "I love you all!" Reaching down, she scooped up all the cats and Cats in her arms and bear-hugged them.

There was a quiet chorus of ouches and owws.

"You see," the Baron said, smiling sheepishly at his fiancée, "I told you it was a great idea."

"Yes, yes, I understand, _mein Lieber_. Haru, dear, let us down, please. I think Luna's turning blue already."

"Sorry," the young lady sniffled as she let them all down gently onto the floor. "I got carried away..."

"And now it's time for my gift," said Louise. She opened one of the cabinets and dragged out a large—for her size, anyway—paper-covered parcel. "Open it."

Haru tore the cover off. "What's this?" she asked, puzzled, holding up a pair of long-sleeved, open-fingered leather gloves, one with some sort of metal insignia at the back of the hand.

"I was impressed with your sword-play, so I decided to give you that," explained the Baroness. "A long time ago I used to use it myself; I don't think I'll need to use it any more, as I have someone who will protect me..." She edged up to the Baron, who linked her arm in his as she smiled at him.

"But it's too big for you," Haru interjected.

"Oh, no, of course I had it changed to fit you. What's important are the rings which go over your ring fingers and the little metal object on the left hand's back. It's a magic shield, Haru. You can command it to expand and protect you, by using nothing but the power of your mind. Try it on, please. I want to see how it looks."

Haru put the pair on. The sleeves were snug and extended halfway past her elbows, and the whole thing was lined in a soft, fine-fleeced grey fur.

"It feels warm and sleek," she reported.

"Oh, _gut._ I was worried I had made it too large. I had it made from the finest Russian leather. You won't find that in any store, no matter how hard you look."

"Pardon me," said Luna, "but how useful can that be for her? I don't think she'll be fighting anyone on the streets of Tokyo using swords."

"True, but as an honorary member of the Cat Business Office, who knows what the future will bring?"

"You could've made a wristband so it'd be easier to put on and take off," commented Moon.

"I wouldn't dare make anything so gauche," huffed Louise. "Dress gloves they are too, if ever she needs them to be. Go on, Haru. Command them to change color. Just think really hard about it. Visualize them turning–"

The handwear turned first a pale yellow, then a pure, shiny white. Then a pearly gray. Then a dark red.

"Very good! You seem to take to it like a natural. Now think of a small gray shield on your left arm. Tell it to extend."

Haru clenched her fist and concentrated. A metallic disc, a buckler around two feet in diameter, appeared and disappeared.

"Ah, thank Heaven! The dweomer is still in place," exclaimed Louise.

The Cat turned to her. "What?"

"I mean—_gruß Gott,_ being with spellcrafter Allón for two weeks does tend to addle one's brains—the magic field. It still works. I thought I might have ruined it by replanting the metal disc on the gloves."

"This is great! Thanks so much, Baroness! I wish I had this before, when we were in the pirate lair." Haru frowned and lifted up her right forearm, which was full of thin white scratches. "Then maybe I could still wear a bikini the next time I went to the beach!"

"Why can't you?" asked Moon.

"Are you kidding? I'm too scarred as it is. I don't think even Kei-chan would want to see me in a bikini anymore. Heck, any kind of bathing suit," she amended mournfully.

"You look fine to me," Muta contradicted her. "I can hardly see your scars from here."

"Yeah," agreed Moon. "You're just being hypersensitive, Haru."

"And you're being a boor, dear brother of mine," said Luna, cuffing him on the back of the head. "C'mon, help me clean up."

"Well, she _could_ wear a wet suit, if she's that desperate..." they all heard Moon stage-mutter as he followed his sister out the door. Muta took the remaining pastry, placed it on a counter, and pulled the dolly out into the twilight for use in the clean-up.

After Muta had exited Haru arranged herself in the freed-up space, placed her hands on her lap, and bowed to the Baron and Louise.

"Thank you so much for what you've given me. I don't know how I can repay you–"

"By being happy, Haru," said the Cat. "And by attending our wedding."

Haru's eyes lit up and her lips formed a wide grin. "You betcha!"

------oOo------

As the happy young woman helped the cats clean up, her thoughts turned more and more to home, and Kei, and Hiromi, and Tsuge, and her mother. All that was missing were Shizuku-sensei and Seiji-sensei to make it all complete. She asked the twins if they had returned to Sakuragaoka and told Shizuku's relatives what had happened.

"No," Luna answered. "We're too sad to do that yet. Baron has, though I don't think he told them _everything_."

"Ah." As Luna carried the last of the dishes inside the Office, the sitting Haru bent her legs and put her arms round her knees. Looking up, she found the Big Dipper and traced its end to the Pole Star.

_She only set the wheels in motion,_ she remembered Princess Nausicaä telling her that night on the battlements of the Cat King's Castle. _Your world now runs under the stars, just as her own does. Your world is as real as hers is, only a vast expanse of time and space and... emotion separates it from your own. She cares for you. Never doubt that._

Haru sighed. Being busy kept Shizuku's memory hidden deep and harmless, but in the quiet spaces of the night, all alone like this... _Sensei, I miss you. I'd have stayed by your side, but Howl told me to go home and go on with my life. I wonder what's happening to you now._


	3. The Wind and the Water

THE WIND AND THE WATER

The smell of old washed clothing, the odor of stored air used while in the Fukai; but it was the scent of Selm himself that gave Nausicaä the greatest comfort as she pressed against him.

The chestnut-haired princess stepped back from the Forest Person's embrace. On the other side of the room humming with the chants of the cat magicians was Haku, also saying his farewells to a special person.

"Haku, please come back to me," said that person. "Please."

The river spirit chuckled and lifted a hand to stroke her cheek. "You don't need to be so melodramatic, Chihiro."

Chihiro Ogino grasped the hand in her own and pressed it against her bosom, bending over it and closing her eyes as she did so. "Haku..."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine."

After exchanging what could very well be their last words to each other, the four went to the middle of the room, where three beds lay together, arranged so that their heads converged and the feet radiated outward like three equidistant spokes. On one bed lay Shizuku's motionless body, kept alive these past few weeks by the efforts of the cat magicians positioned at the periphery of the room. In between the beds sat Zeniiba, Howl and Yu-baaba, on wooden chairs with long armrests and thick feet carved to resemble some clawed creature's. The last two were already deep in their spells, entranced and insensible to what was happening around them. Beside Howl stood Sophie, giving Nausicaä and Haku encouraging glances as they met one last time.

"This is it," said Zeniiba. "We mustn't delay any longer. Good luck, both of you."

"Onee-sama," said Chihiro, wearing a defiant and determined expression on her face as she looked at Nausicaä, "don't try anything funny with him."

"What?" A smile spread on the Child of the Wind's face. "Chihiro, like I told you, I wouldn't dream of doing that. You don't need to worry." She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "He's all yours."

Chihiro colored and stepped back. "Anyway, good luck. Please take care."

"Yes." Nausicaä gave Chihiro a little bow, never taking her eyes away from the younger girl's. _If only I could tell you that we'll meet in the future, and that you and Haku will be alright,_ she thought. _But I can't. I shouldn't, or I might change things, and not for the better. _

There was a quiet chorus of good-lucks from the others in the room—Rin and an _aogaeru_ from the bathhouse Aburaya, Pazu, Elder Oroku of the tanuki tribe. Kaonashi also bid them good luck, although it came out as his usual 'ah, ah' instead of as anything intelligible. Seiji was also there, frail, dark-eyed, a shell of his former self after waiting for so long; he carried his violin with him. He had been playing to his dead wife for the past few days, playing an air which he had composed one night atop a turret of Fort Lorum and originally entitled 'Haru and the Baron.' It was supposed to be a happy tune, but his hands and heart effortlessly turned it into something melancholic and painfully solitary, something that stirred a profound sadness in each person who listened to it.

Because upon hearing it, they knew. They knew he was calling, calling to Shizuku, in the only way he knew how. Music had played an important part when they first met; the snickers and irritation over a parody had turned into friendship, and then love. Now Seiji was trying to entice Shizuku back to him, in a language they both spoke and heard with their hearts. None of the others had any doubt that she would hear him, somehow.

Sophie Hatter watched the friends strengthening each other with encouraging words and couldn't help but admire their concern for a previously unmet member of their clan. Her musings were interrupted, however, by a voice in her mind.

_Sophie? _

_ Yes, Howl?_ She looked at the black-haired figure slumped in the chair and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, wary of waking him up from his spell.

_ I want you to tell Michael to fetch Haru Yoshioka. Bring her here. _

_ Does he know how to? _

_ He's a resourceful boy. He'll find a way. _

_ Alright. _

From beside one of the beds Pazu watched as Sophie gave Howl's shoulder the briefest of caresses. Prompted by the sight, he gave Sheeta's hand a gentle squeeze. She was sitting beside the bed Nausicaä was going to use, also in a trance like Howl and the twins were, though hers was not as deep. She was lending her mental power to them, and Chikuku—positioned beside Haku's bed—was doing the same thing.

The young man originally from Slag's Ravine sighed in relief. After three long months of searching and preparing, everything could finally begin. It wasn't easy finding the spell ingredients that were needed, even with Kiki's help. The worst part was trying to find that so-called 'helium two' Howl wanted. It had required a trip into the modern world, and quite a number of adventures. Even when they had found a supply, without Yu-baaba's magic there wouldn't have been a way to contain it long enough to bring back to the Cat King's Castle. As it was, Sheeta's gardener robot had suffered some damage while trying to handle it; fortunately, Laputan technology was resilient and the automaton had the capacity to repair itself, as it had demonstrated at the battle at the Phaecis Gang's island.

The huddle at the head of the beds broke up, and Nausicaä proceeded to hers. Her eyes met Pazu's. He could read the fear in them, and it chilled him to think that Jhil's only surviving child was herself afraid of what she was going to undertake.

"When you get back," he piped up, trying to ease her mind, "we should have a race, you and I. You on your Mehve, me on my flapter."

Nausicaä smiled a little. "I'd like that." She lay down on the bed. She was wearing a replica of her blue costume at Zeniiba's request, to help with her easing into the shifting reality that was sure to characterize the world inside Shizuku's mind. Haku was likewise clad in his blue-and-white robes, and Chihiro was in her red _suikan_ bathhouse uniform instead of casual wear, but no _tasuki_ was holding her sleeves back and her pants weren't bloused: Lune's castle was no Aburaya, and she wasn't here as a worker but as an honored guest.

The blond-haired man from the Forest was covering her with a bedsheet when Zeniiba came over. Standing over her, she asked, "Comfy?"

Nausicaä nodded.

"Good. Now, close your eyes. This won't hurt, but get ready. You don't know what to expect when you get to the other side."

Before obeying, the wind-rider sought and found Selm's hand and gripped it. One last look of faith—and love—passed between them.

_I'll be here if you need me,_ he sent. _I won't let any harm come to you._

Nausicaä nodded, but she knew the emptiness behind the reassurance. If things were that easy, Selm would probably be lying in her place, and she would be the one watching over him. Still, she was grateful for his words. He was now all that remained of her world, except for Chikuku: Kushana and Charuka had to return to their respective lands long ago, lest something bad happen because of their absence. Despite the end of the Dorok-Torumekian conflict, they all knew war was never more than a scheming brain and a hair-trigger away.

Selm's keen eyes were the last thing Nausicaä remembered before Zeniiba, unbidden, cast her spirit into a lightless abyss. Falling, she screamed.

------oOo------

Nausicaä had a vague vision of feathers, glowing white in the darkness, encircling her, and of a pair of large white wings flapping. A sweet breath of wind intruded into her consciousness, and she had the smidgen of a moment to wonder how familiar it was before something long, scaly, and silvery-white caught her in clawed hands.

_Are you okay? _

"Yeah. Thanks, Haku. So we get to do this again, eh?"

_ What? _

_ Oh, nothing. _Haku wouldn't understand. Not for some human years yet.

The darkness gradually gave way to a seemingly endless ocean under a sky made colorful with orange clouds and a yellow horizon. Nausicaä could smell the salt even though they were still very high above the water, the distance above which she judged by the tiny size of the spray-foam on its surface.

"Where are we?" she asked as Haku carefully deposited her on his back.

_We're inside Shizuku's mind,_ Haku replied. _These are its furthest reaches. Everyone has barriers they put up to protect themselves from the outside. It seems she prefers hers in the form of water._ He raised his long, bewhiskered head and peered into the distance._ Lots and lots of water. _

"Well, then, let's go zooming over it and look for her."

_You don't understand. _There was a frown in the voice. _This is going to be a very long journey, if her spirit and imagination are any measure. You must conserve your strength. Sleep, if you can. _

"We just got here and you're telling me to sleep? I can't do that. What if I fall?"

_Nausicaä. Have you that little faith in me? _

"No, I didn't mean it that way. I don't think I can sleep on the wing."

_Well, you'd better learn, and fast._

------oOo------

Sleep and flight are virtually anathema to each other, the combining of which being the province of no living creature except for some species of birds, like the ocean-spanning albatross. Though Nausicaä was no bird and didn't have wings growing out of her back—or she'd be a monster, as Chikuku said once before—she took Haku's advice and tried to sleep while he flew tirelessly on and the ocean under them unrolled in an ever-changing and never-ending vista. She found it ironic in the days after that the first thing she did upon falling asleep was pitch sideways, almost falling off her dragonish ride. After that Haku was much more careful and carried her in his arms, the rhythmic rumbling in his chest lulling her to slumber as he sailed towards a point he had never seen but knew existed, by the very dint of the sadness and longing emanating from it.

------oOo------

The moment they appeared in her world, _she_ knew. Her eyes opened, and she sat up from her flower-stamen bed inside her giant lotus.

She could tell they were dangerous: they both gave off the same aura that awful old woman had. But she couldn't focus on their forms, for something was blocking her, thwarting her sight. All that came to her mind when she tried to visualize them was the roaring of the breakers and the hiss of the wind blowing the foam off it and sending it into the sky.

They meant her no good, that was apparent. She would take care of the one who was of the spirit world first. As she got off her bed the stamens puffed up and released gouts of pollen into the air with a faint tinkling sound. The woman turned and watched the glowing gold particles for a moment, catching them in her hand and then letting them trickle through her fingers like shining snow. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind she heard the faint echo of a violin.

"My name... my name is Shizuku..."


	4. My Beau

MY BEAU

After the little celebration at the Cat Business Office Haru staggered back home, half-inebriated and not really sure of her way. Lucky for her Muta had decided to accompany her home, at least to the front door. He was, to tell the truth, feeling a bit guilty, since he had played a large role in putting her in that state.

"I won't stay here," he told her as she fumbled with her key. "I'm leaving with Moon for a job in about four hours or so."

"Job?"

"Bureau business."

"But wait, I'm an honorary member, sho you should tell me about it..."

_Thank Heaven vodka is mostly odorless,_ Muta mused as he watched Haru finally open the door and shuffle inside on unsteady feet.

"I'm not telling you in your condition. Come on, upstairs. Go to bed."

"Hey, wassh it my fault you spiked the punch? Woohaaa, I'm feeling no pain now, yessiree..."

"Oh, brother. Look, if you fall, I'm not gonna catch you," the fat cat insisted.

"Whattarya tryin' to shay? That I'm too heavy? I ain't heavy."

"Upstairs. Now."

"Alright, alright, don't be so pushy." Removing her canvas-topped shoes and placing them in the _genkan,_ Haru began heading towards the staircase.

"Hey!" Muta shouted, a bit unwisely for such a quiet neighborhood in the early morning. "Lock your door!"

"Oh, yeah." Before Haru shut the door on him she bent down, grabbed him by the scruff, and planted a big, wet kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for walking me home, _Moo-ta._"

"Why you—" The whack was automatic, the result of having spent years tangling with Toto. Haru sobered in an instant when she thought Muta had cut her nose off her face. She dropped him and he ran out the door, pausing only to look back and give her a disdainful glance before disappearing into the darkness.

_Finicky feline,_ she thought as she felt for her nose. As it was, the white cat had only batted it with his unclawed paw. Satisfied that she wasn't going to be asking any plastic surgeon for their services any time soon, Haru began weaving her way once more upstairs. Entering her room, she gladly collapsed on her bed, falling asleep almost instantly. The most unladylike of snores began filling the small space.

------oOo------

The liquor brought her alcohol-wet dreams. Once more she was back in her senior years, walking down the corridor of her high school with a chemistry set in her hands. So intent was she on making sure that it didn't fall that when she rounded a corner she slammed into something moving fast, and her test tubes fell onto the hard, polished floor and, tinkling, broke.

"Oh _noooo..._"

"Geez, I'm sorry!" said the formerly-moving-fast thingy. It bent down to help her.

Haru paused in her appraisal of the broken laboratory glassware and looked up.

"Oh, Machida-san!" The encounter of the previous week, when Hiromi had naughtily pushed her into his path as he walked past them, came fresh to her mind. She remembered how she had, in her terror, given him a frightened smile and blurted out, "Hi," and stood there like a fool. He, in turn, had looked at her a moment before returning her greeting coolly.

"Haru Yoshioka, right?"

She nodded, and he gave her a half-smile and walked away, down the corridor to his classroom.

Hiromi had tentatively touched her shoulder. "Haru? You okay?"

"W-why shouldn't I be? You only made me look like an idiot."

"Aw, that wasn't so bad. You looked so cute I wish I had my camera. It'd be a shot for the yearbook."

"Hiromi! How could you?"

"They say he hasn't shown an interest in girls since he broke up with his girlfriend," piped up Chika, watching the whole thing from the sidelines through her thick glasses. "It could be your chance, Miss Haru."

"That's right! Show him some looove, Haruuu-chan!" Hiromi enthused. "Poor lonely heartbroken guy! He's totally free and available! And, if you didn't notice, Miss I-Turn-Into-Mush-In-Front-Of-My-Crush, he knew your name."

Chika nodded. "Yeah, that means he must've already noticed you for some reason."

"Well, whatever it is, it can't be her boobies," Hiromi suggested, smiling evilly. "Guys like him probably prefer breasts the size of watermelons, and hers are too small—" She jerked out of the way of Haru's hand, which was trying to pinch her.

"You are a nutzoid," Haru declared of her best friend. "A nutzoid, nutzoid, nutzoid—"

"You okay?"

The question brought her out of the reverie. Machida was looking at her with concern written on his face.

She nodded. "I, ah, I'm sorry. Oh, Murata-sensei's going to _kill_ me," she groaned, looking at the disaster strewn on the floor around her.

"No, it's my fault. Don't touch it. I'll come with you to Lab and explain things."

He did more than that; afterwards, he helped her clean the mess up.

"You don't have to do this," she objected quietly as he helped her sweep up the shards of broken Pyrex. "You're missing your class."

"No, it's all right. Science bores me anyway," he said, giving her that half-smile again. Haru felt her heart leap, and her knees turn to mush and her legs become all wobbly. She smiled back, to hide her nervousness.

After they had finished sweeping and mopping, he bid her farewell.

"I don't want to anger Oda-sensei too much," he explained. "Sorry again."

"It's okay. Thanks."

"By the way," he said as he walked away from her, "you've got a nice smile."

The cost of the damage exceeded the deposit every student left with the school at the beginning of the year for such situations, so Haru had to explain things to her mother and pay the difference. But after that casual, off-the-shoulder comment, she didn't care if she had had to pay a million times the amount.

------oOo------

Something tickled her mind, and she shifted into a more comfortable position on her bed.

------oOo------

"Hey, this yours?" Haru pointed to a pear with a bite taken out of it, lying on a handkerchief between her backpack and an unknown person's shoulder bag. Both were on a park bench, having a lunch break, like their owners. She had just come back from her teacher-assigned group, to the place where she and her two friends had agreed to meet.

"No. I think its Hiromi's," answered Chika.

"Sure?"

"I don't know. I just arrived myself."

"Think she'd mind if I have a bite? I'm starving."

"Well, that's what you get for skipping breakfast."

"But I was going to be late!"

"C'mon, Haru, you knew we were leaving early. It's a field trip, for goodness' sake."

"Anyway..." Haru picked the fruit up and had already buried her teeth in its cool, watery crunchiness when someone cleared a throat. She turned around.

Machida stood behind her, with his eyebrows raised.

"_Oi,_" he said quietly, "what do you think you're doing with my food?"

Haru's eyes widened, and she removed her mouth from the pear.

"T-this is yours? Gosh, I'm so sorry! I thought it was my friend's... This is your bag?"

Machida nodded solemnly.

"I... well, I could buy something to replace it, if you'd just wait a couple–"

"Naah, it's okay. You can have it. I was just surprised, that's all." He smiled at her.

As he looked steadily at her, Haru felt her nervousness evaporate, and a strange and exhilarating feeling replaced it. She turned into _Homo sapiens gooey_ around him, sad but true. But there was more than one way to get her message across.

She stared back up at him and turned the pear so the portion with the bite taken out of it was under her mouth. Her teeth made a small scrunching sound as she bit on top of it, and she closed her eyes as her lips met the fruit's chilly flesh again.

"Thanks," she said _sotto voce_ after she had swallowed the piece down, looking at her crush through lowered lashes.

The expression on the tall, lanky boy's face had changed slightly. The slightest hint of awe was in his eyes.

"No, uh, no problem, Haru-san." He nodded at her, picked up his bag, and left to look for his classmates.

Haru waited until he was far enough across the park, then started trembling.

"Hey, what's wrong?" It was Hiromi, rushing up to her after having gone to buy her lunch.

"I think Miss Yoshioka's taken the first big step towards snagging Machida," reported Chika. "She just contact-kissed the pear he gave her."

"Really? Great! Invite me to the wedding, okay?"

"Oh, shut up, Hiromi! I feel as though I'm going to fall to pieces!"

------oOo------

Haru wasn't the only person thinking about her significant other at that time. In his room, Machida lay on his bed, hands laced behind his head, and thought about the decidedly tense situation he had been in with her that night.

He had gone to her house, after a month of purposefully not seeking contact with her. He was trying to hash out the conflicting feelings in his heart. One part told him that she had betrayed his trust, that he should dump her: it would be what she deserved. The other told him to hang it all, and said she deserved another chance.

The clincher came when a letter arrived at his house. A real, honest-to-goodness missive on expensive cream paper. It had Haru's writing on it. _Please, Kei-chan,_ she had written, _I'd like to talk to you. I know you're avoiding me. Can't you spare me a tidbit of mercy and listen to me, even for a little while?_

A sucker am I, he had decided as he folded the letter up and put it back in its envelope. He never could resist Haru, or any other pleading member of the female sex for that matter. Big doe eyes always melted his heart.

So he had called and told her that he was dropping by. He steeled himself for what might come, and she had answered the door in apron and jeans.

"You're a bit early," she had stammered. "I thought you said–"

"You said you wanted to talk. I'm here. Now."

"Oh. Well, come on in." Haru turned away from him, and that peculiar scent he could never identify wafted from her again.

It turned out she was busy cooking. For him, she had said. After a few minutes of awkward silence, and asking, "Could I help you with that?" and answering, "No, I'm fine, everything's fine," they sat down to eat at the small table in the dining space. And she had let loose a couple of bombs.

Firstly, she said that she wasn't sorry she had entered into a relationship with that strange Cat. She was sorry, though, that she had hurt Machida.

"I know I should've done things better," she admitted as they ate their meal, "and I know this is probably difficult for you to understand, but I do love Baron. And I guess I also wanted to be in a relationship with him to get back at you, for trying to force me into—well, you know."

"And what am I to you, Haru?" he had asked bitterly. "Was I a placeholder for him? Was I just your boy toy?"

"No! It's so difficult to explain. To understand you need to be in my shoes, and experience what I experienced. We both know that'll never happen. If you can't live with what I did, Kei-chan, I'll understand if you want t-to—end this relationship of ours."

"Do _you_ want to end it, Haru? I've got nothing on him—I'm not a gentleman, I don't fight well, I'm not a hero. I just can't compete. I'm an ordinary guy with a little responsibility, that's all."

"No, I don't want to end it! I'm..." Haru sighed and gulped, and to Machida it appeared like she was holding back tears. "I just want to ask if you can... if you can find it in yourself to take me back­–"

She suddenly stood up, upsetting her wineglass, causing Machida in turn to leap out of his seat to avoid the rivulet of liquor that spilled from the edge of the table.

"I'm sorry–"

"That's okay–"

Two hands reached down to set the wineglass upright. They touched, and the spill was forgotten as their owners trembled inwardly with emotion and looked at each other.

"Haru..." Machida gave in to his urge and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed against him as they held one another. "I'm so sorry I hurt you."

"Don't talk anymore," he said. "Yes, Haru, I'll take you back. But how can I be happy knowing you love someone else?"

"I love him as a dear friend now, and nothing more," Haru replied, her voice muffled against his chest. "Besides, I don't want to be his second woman. We agreed to end that part of our relationship when we rescued Louise."

"And did you? I seem to recall seeing him kissing your hand in Lune's castle..."

"Oh, that. It's just the way he is with ladies. I tried to tell you, but you left."

"I remember. I just have one condition, Haru-chan."

"What is it?"

"If you ever do something like what you did with Baron again, we are through. I don't think my ego could survive a second beating."

"It's a deal." Haru snuggled up against him.

They stood as still as a pair of statues, entangled with each other, as the silence of the room continued to ensconce them in its stillness and the wine continued to drip onto the floor. After some time he spoke.

"Haru-chan, could I ask something?"

"What?"

"How about a kiss? It's been a long time."

She pulled back from him and, smiling, brushed the hair away from her tear-wet eyes. "Sure."

The wall which seemed to have been building between them, its foundations having been pulled out from under it, collapsed, and the talk turned to light banter and even a bit of reminiscing and acting out Hiromi's tempestuous early days with Tsuge. Haru remarked that she had no idea they would get to this point in their relationship, and Machida had in turn said he had no idea she had such extraordinary friends.

"Moon and Luna made me worry so much when they told me you were in trouble," he said as they cleared the table. "I thought I wouldn't be able to bear it if anything had happened to you..."

"'Oh, what will become of me, if I lose you?" quoted Haru, looking at him sidelong through veiled eyes, a minxish look on her face. "Remember that?"

Machida smiled. "Yeah. 'Love must give way to duty, dearest, or I am a traitor.'"

"'You already are a traitor! To me!'" Haru raised her hand to slap him, and turned the gesture aside, as she had when they performed it long ago. "'Faithless man! Who are you to value the word of a lord more than the love of a woman?'"

"'It is who I am.'"

Chuckling, Haru had turned for the sink, laden with soaking dirty dishes. "Those were the days."

"Yeah. Too bad we can't return to them."

After a few minutes he excused himself and said he had to leave for his parents' factory. He refrained from touching or kissing her again and left hurriedly, slamming the door on his way out to make sure it closed.

------oOo------

_Did I make the right decision?_ he wondered as he ended his recollection and decided to take a shower, even though it was early in the morning. Judging by how happy his heart felt, he thought he had.

------oOo------

Something tickled Haru again, on the nose. She shifted in the bed and in her dream.

"Mmm... Kei-chan, you're such a good kisser..." Haru puckered up and reached for her boyfriend again. Instead of warm softness, her lips a sort of hairy wall, and the sensation made her open her eyes.

Lying on the bed beside her, with her hands gripping the collar of its hood, was a dwarf. She was kissing its palisade-like beard.

"G-good evening," it said in stilted Japanese, pushing itself away from her. "Could you let me go? You're pretty and all, but we hardly know each other."

It was a good thing there was no one else in the house, and that Michael managed to muffle her shriek with his hand.


	5. The Accident

THE ACCIDENT

** Author's Note:** This and the next chapter feature Haku and Nausicaä more than Haru and Baron. I should've said in the beginning that this fic will involve the Cat very little, being more of a Haru/Machida love story than anything else. Why? Well, I don't want to disturb him while he's making wedding preparations. After around half a century of waiting he might suddenly lose his cool and kill me if I delayed him :)

I know some--heck, all--of you must be wondering how every major Ghibli character aside from Haru and Co. got to know each other. It's that blasted Christmas Party Baron always keeps referring to: see my fic "A Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind Christmas." That's also under revision as well, so if there are any errors... well, there be errors, and I hope you'll be kind enough to point them out to me.

When I got that hook I couldn't let go of it. It's led me to this, and it contains so much potential. I was forced to drop many interesting character interactions in 'The Cat Requests A Favour,' in the interests of keeping it short: Yu-baaba arguing with San, who was angry at her greediness, which she sees also in Eboshi-gozen and Tatara-ba; a still-rebellious Rikako Muto being sheperded by Taeko Okajima; Selm and Asbel butting heads (in a genteel sort of way) over Nausicaä; Asbel beginning to forgive Kushana for being responsible for his sister Rastel's death; so many possibilities. I hope it doesn't all go entirely over your heads, as Ellenlome warned me.

Ah, by the way, when Nausicaä said she met Haku and Chihiro before, that's another multi-Ghibli fic of mine, the main of which is not here on ff . nutty. In it she dies because she saves Tokyo from a nuclear bomb, is brought to Aburaya by Angel, and meets a Chihiro Ogino who is all grown-up and getting married--I won't say to whom, as that's still open to revision. This is why in the next chapter she engages in a little heart-to-heart with Haku.

* * *

High in the dark metropolitan sky galloped the Nekobus, carrying five beings in its passenger compartment. Its passage went unnoticed by any eyes, except perhaps those of the odd child—grown-up or not—who really should have been fast asleep at the time. 

"Hey," Haru said, nudging one of her seatmates. She was glad she had put on warm clothes to fight off the November chill: a gaily-colored patchwork leather jacket her Mom had made for her on her graduation, a long-sleeved silken blouse, gray slacks and red pumps. Her short dark hair was mooshed up in a bristly ball at the back of her head. "I said I was sorry."

"It's okay," said the hooded, cloak-wearing figure sitting next to her. It had a bit of gauze plastered to its right hand. "I guess I shouldn't have been tickling your nose like that." It touched the bandage experimentally and winced a little. "You've got one heck of a bite. I'm glad Sophie doesn't react the way you do when I tease her awake."

"I'm sorry!" reiterated Haru. "I was half-asleep and I thought—"

"I know. Don't worry about it, I can fix this later."

"Sure?"

"Yup."

Satisfied that Michael wasn't really fuming at her, Haru turned her attention to the person on her other side. He was asleep, his head bowed onto his chest, lolling slightly in the motion produced by the Nekobus. Only the grasp of the furry bench seat he sat on held him upright.

Which was a bit too bad, Haru decided as she reached up and affectionately brushed his shock of black hair away from his face. She wouldn't have minded at all if he had leaned against her. Not even if he had decided to lie down on her lap, right in front of Michael and Cameron and Mrs. Kusakabe.

She had woken up to find Howl's apprentice Michael and Cameron the cat magician from Lune's Kingdom in her room. It turned out that Michael was in an impish mood, and had decided to wake her up by tickling her nose. She had reacted by grabbing him and kissing him (she was still deep in her dreams and thought she was necking with Kei), but when she saw his dwarf-like disguise she panicked. Her brain still clouded and her vision still unfocused thanks to drink and sleep, she did the only thing she could think of—and promptly bit his hand.

After applying first aid to the boy—Cameron huffily refused to treat his minor injury with his magic, saying that Michael deserved it for sneaking into a lady's room in the first place—Haru heard the doorbell ring. When she went downstairs and had a look, Kei-chan was outside, waiting expectantly for her.

"What're you doing here?" she scolded him as she opened the door. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Course I do. Mind if I come in? It's a bit chilly out here."

"Oops. Sure."

The second Machida had stepped over the threshold he shed his jacket and gave Haru a peck on the cheek, which surprised her.

"My, you're in a good mood for someone who's awake at two in the morning," she remarked as she took his jacket from him.

"Things went well at the factory, and _oyaji_ let me out early–"

"Real early, I should say," Haru quipped.

"–and I decided that since you were all alone I'd keep you company."

Having placed her boyfriend's jacket on a peg in the front-door hallway, Haru laced her arms round him. "And if I was asleep, dear boy, what would you have done?"

"Slept in the car," Machida replied, hugging her back. As he was about to kiss her, he spied movement on top of the stairs.

"Who's that?" he asked, startled.

"Hmm? Oh, Cameron and a friend are here to take me to the Cat Kingdom."

"Again? Why?"

"Shizuku-sensei."

"Oh." Machida paused. "Since I'm here, I might as well go with you. And Cameron," he called, "you can come out now. I know you're there."

The little cat emerged with Michael in tow. After brief introductions between Michael and Kei they waited for around a quarter of an hour for the Nekobus—Cameron said that he was leery of using his magic to create a portal from the real world to the Cat Kingdom, since, as Haru had discovered to her dismay some three months earlier, the powerful spell Howl, Yu-baaba and the others were casting was interfering with any magic in its vicinity.

They had settled down in the living room to wait. While doing so, Machida pointedly asked why Haru had the faint smell of liquor on her person, and she sheepishly admitted to being at a party at the Cat Bureau.

"They made me an honorary member," she said with a hint of pride in her voice, shifting on the couch beside him.

"Really? That must be quite an honor."

"Yeah."

"I guess they must think highly of you, especially Baron..."

Haru noticed the catch in his voice. "I hope they do. And by the way, I also met the Baroness and we talked about him. They're getting married soon."

"Oh, really? Good luck to them."

"Kei..."

"What?"

"Tell me what you're thinking."

"Nothing." Machida gave her a rueful grin. "Just jealous for a moment."

"Oh." Haru took hold of his arm and snuggled up against him. "Please don't be."

Before Machida could say anything Cameron cleared his throat loudly. "Say, Michael, why don't we go outside and have a look at the stars? I haven't been keeping up with my astrology lately, and you know how fickle stars' fortunes are."

Howl's youthful protégé had looked blankly at him, so the cat magician grabbed his hand and yanked him out into the front yard.

"We'll call you when the Nekobus gets here," he called before shutting the door.

The second the strange pair had disappeared from sight, Machida and Haru had smiled at each other.

"Thank you, Cameron," Haru giggle-whispered, just before the tall, lanky boy with the gleaming dark eyes smothered her lips with his own.

When the Nekobus had arrived bearing Mrs. Kusakabe, they were comfortably deep into the cushions, in each other's arms and quietly talking. Without any further ado they shouldered their small packs, locked up and boarded the 'bus, whose signboard changed to read 'Cat Kingdom'. A few minutes after the creature-vehicle had left Machida had fallen asleep, no doubt tired from his stint at the factory.

"It's pretty, isn't it?" Haru asked Mrs. Kusakabe, who was looking out the window at the twinkling lights of Tokyo sweeping by underneath them.

"Yes, it is. It's so big now," answered the mother of Mei and Satsuki. "So prosperous..."

"What do you think of the future now that you've seen it, Kusakabe-sama?" asked the cat magician.

"I'm amazed, of course. Personally I never dreamed it would become like this," she said. "But I can't help but feel that something's missing..."

"What?"

"I'm not sure. I can't quite put my finger on it." Mrs. Kusakabe shook her head. "Ah, but you know what I'm always wondering? I wonder if my grown-up children are somewhere down there. They must be in their forties or fifties now."

"Just like Kiki," commented Cameron.

"Oh, no! Kiki must be what, sixty or more?"

"Really? She seems younger than that."

"Must be those potions of hers. The cat magicians say she's the best potion-brewer ever."

"Did she ever marry, Kusakabe-sama?"

"She did. But her husband lived a mortal life, and died long ago."

Cameron sighed. "It's sad how time passes and changes everyone, tampers with their history, isn't it?"

"Why?" asked Mrs. Kusakabe, turning to smile at the boy-turned-feline. "Do you want to live forever, Master Cat?"

Cameron shrugged in reply, and a thought suddenly struck Haru. Was Mrs. Kusakabe's present-day alter-ego still alive? If not, when did she pass away? It must be a poignant feeling, she decided, looking out at a world you knew you would probably never get to see, and knowing your children—and your children's children—were out there somewhere, living in it.

The temptation to go and see them must be great, Haru thought, but she never saw Mrs. Kusakabe inclined to do so. Curiosity aroused, Haru opened her mouth to ask her about it, but then changed her mind and kept her trap shut. She didn't want to be the one to broach such a sensitive topic. Haru had an inkling that perhaps Mrs. Kusakabe was indifferent to the future because she was someone for whom the present held fascination enough.

------oOo------

It came out of the high clouds, a glowing spot of light that Haku espied from afar.

_Nausicaä,_ he sent, his whiskers bristling at the power he felt. _We've got company. Get ready._

Days had passed since their arrival in this placeless creation. Or was it weeks? Nausicaä could no longer be sure. The sun rose and set, stars came out and the moon did as well, but who could be sure of anything in a place like this? All she could be sure of was that her body ached something fierce from riding Haku for so long. To combat it she had alternated between riding on his back and being carried by him, but it had helped only a little.

It had all been water; no land, not even the suggestion of a seamount lurking underneath the blue glass of the waves. But now it seemed that the journey was over, and the confrontation begun. For who else could that be, but Shizuku?

"I'm ready now, Haku," she said. The dragon twisted and climbed.

------oOo------

"Seiji-sensei!" Haru stage-whispered as she walked up to the violin-maker and bowed. "_Genki?_"

"I'm fine," he answered as he returned her gesture. "Under the circumstances, that is. I'm glad to see you well. You too, Machida-kun."

"Thanks."

Seiji-sensei was looking wan and forlorn, but at least he was holding up, Haru mused. She knew that he had already returned home and told his folks about what had happened—just like Baron had done so before him. She didn't want to tell the bereaved man of Shizuku's 'image of my husband' remark. She knew that if he heard it, it would most likely devastate him.

"Now would you mind telling me what you two are doing here?"

"Huh?" Haru raised her brows. "Michael told me Howl wanted me to come over."

"Really? Wonder why."

"How long has this been going on?" asked Machida as he and Haru took in the scene—figures lying in beds, and figures seated and standing, all somber and silent and varying shades of crimson except for the beds and people and the cat magicians at the periphery with their chants. It looked like some tableau adapted from a Hieronimus Bosch work.

"Three days now, non-stop." They moved aside to let Pazu pass. He gave them a nod in greeting. Haru smiled in return, noticing in his look and general demeanor a certain something that revealed the pugnacious spirit within him.

"I'm surprised they have the stamina."

"They take quick breaks, but that's all."

"When will we know?" asked Haru imploringly. "When will something happen?"

"I don't know. No one really knows."

Haru looked longingly at Shizuku's body, almost as white as the sheet which covered it. "Could I... go closer?"

Seiji looked at her, an indecipherable emotion in his eyes. "Sure. But whatever you do, don't touch her. Understand? You'll ruin the spell."

Haru nodded and walked noiselessly up to Shizuku. Machida didn't follow. He knew she wanted to be alone.

_Sensei, _she thought as she stared down at the woman on the bed,_ I just... I hope you're alright... but no, if you're like that you're definitely not alright... ooh, I'm sorry my thoughts are so disorganized. I'd thank you for saving Baron, but I won't, because you ended up like this. I want to say I'd like you to come back here, but I know that'd be selfish. Just... just choose whatever makes you happy, sensei._ Haru closed her eyes. _You told me a great secret, one that I can't share to anyone else. Not to my mother, not to my friends... It makes me feel so lonely knowing it..._

So deep was she in thought that she had no idea someone was approaching her from behind.

"Ah, Lady Yoshioka." The voice was deep but quiet, endeavoring to be friendly. Haru jumped out of her skin and turned to face a pair of gleaming yellow eyes and a body with spiky long fur of a purple shade. A jeweled circlet sat on the being's head.

"So nice to see you again, my dear." It was King Lune's father. He moved towards her, intending to take her hand so as to kiss it.

Haru, feeling threatened by his proximity and remembering her abduction and his attempt to marry her when Lune had refused her in favor of Yuki, took a precipitate step backwards—and her calf brushed Shizuku's bedcover.

The humming silence was broken by several yells as she fell to the red-tiled floor, a sack of unconscious flesh, a marionette whose strings had suddenly been cut.

------oOo------

The spot of light grew until it had resolved itself into a huge bird of flame, a phoenix whose only corporeal parts seemed to be its wickedly hooked beak and long, scaly legs and long-taloned feet. It lit up the underside of the clouds in its brilliant white light as it descended towards Nausicaä and Haku.

After some minutes, she watched it fly past as Haku stopped in mid-air and turned to follow it.

"Ho!" she called loudly. "Are you Shizuku Tsukishima? We wish to speak with you!"

The phoenix turned and stopped, the beating of its wings sending waves of hot air at the wind-rider despite the fifty or so feet which separated it from them.

"Intruders you are, in my realm," it intoned in an eerily echoing high-pitched voice. "You have no right to speak to me." It made as if to fly off, its long tail feathers describing a fiery, graceful arc as it turned and climbed away.

"Wait! Haku, let's go after her."

_Already on it._ The dragon sped off.

The wind whipped Nausicaä's hair as Haku gave chase to the mysterious being. She crouched low on his back, remembering fondly how he could accelerate like nothing in her world could the last time she rode him. But even with the tremendous speed he was capable of, it became apparent after a minute or two that the bird was receding, shrinking in size.

"Can't you go any faster?" she asked, partly in jest, partly in irony. "She's getting away!"

_I'm going as fast as I can,_ Haku replied curtly, sounding more than a little irritated. _Remember, this is her creation. She is master here._

Nausicaä watched in despair as the phoenix suddenly rose majestically into the sky on open wings, heading for the high clouds. Its light was very beautiful, in a hellish sort of way.

"Shizuku!" she shouted, knowing that she wouldn't be heard at such a distance. "Please stop! We were sent here by Zeniiba to talk to you!"

The phoenix suddenly leveled out, upside-down and heading on a reciprocal course, but at a much higher altitude. Heading towards them.

"Say not that name!" came the screech, that seemed to reverberate across the heavens. "With those words you have earned yourselves death."

With fear building in her heart the Princess of the Valley of Wind watched as the bird of flame righted itself, stooped upon them and dove, its feet open, its talons extended and waiting—wanting—to rend flesh.

------oOo------

"Send for the Royal Physician!" bellowed the Cat Duke at Natori. The spectacled Siamese was, as usual, hovering near him.

"At once, sire!" With a plastron-armored guard, the Cat Secretary waddled off in search of the doctor.

The room was in bedlam. People were clustered around Haru, who was in Machida's arms. He had disregarded Seiji's warning shouts and pulled her away from the deadly touch of Shizuku's bed, heedless of his own safety.

"Haru?" he said, slapping her cheeks, trying to ascertain what had happened. "Haru-chan, it's me, loverboy. What happened, Seiji-sensei?" His free left hand moved to her wrist. "Why won't she..."

The question died away as his fingers felt again, then moved to the side of her neck. And then covered the lower part of her face.

"She... she isn't breathing! And there's no pulse! She hasn't got a pulse!" He looked wildly up at Seiji.

"No!" he keened. "This isn't happening!" Frantically he laid her on the floor, opening her jacket as the people around them began to buzz with whispered comments.

Seiji, Oroku and Mrs. Kusakabe also examined Haru, with the same conclusions, after which Machida felt he could no longer wait for the Royal Physician.

"Give me some room!" he ordered the people around him. He felt her neck again for a pulse, found none, and placed his hands on her chest and began CPR. He was well into his desperate efforts when something—someone—tickled his mind, signaling for his attention.

_Don't,_ it said. _She lives. Pull her back now, and you will cause more harm than good. She is alive._

The calm in the voice made him think, and he slowed, then stopped his attempts at resuscitation. Breathing hard, he looked up, in the direction of one of the beds. From the look on everyone's face, he wagered that they'd heard it too.

_Chikuku gives you his word on this._

_It is too late, _came another disembodied thought. Howl's. _Chikuku is right, Machida-san. Place her beside Shizuku. There is no other way now than to let her ride it out along with Nausicaä and Haku._

"B-but she hasn't experienced death like Nausicaä, nor is she a spirit like Haku," objected a worried Oroku, who had just come into the room bearing coffee for herself and the Cat Duke when the accident had occurred. "Will she be able to withstand it?"

_I'd be lying if I said I knew the answer to that,_ Howl answered_. I will try to help, if I can._

Standing behind Howl's chair, unmarked by anyone, Sophie frowned. Arms clasped together as if hugging herself, her nails dug into her forearms as she prayed for her beloved wizard's safety.

------oOo------

Nausicaä almost fell off as Haku suddenly turned and fled. The shrieking phoenix dove past them, and a hot wind assaulted her exposed face.

"What're you doing, Haku? You know you can't outrun her!"

_Yes, but I can't fight her either, not with you on my back. Keep talking while I try to dodge her, okay?_

There was one advantage to being serpentine: you could confuse your enemy as to you center of mass, have her try to strike at where she thought your bulk was. Then when she was about to hit, you just pulled yourself out of the way.

That was what Haku did, as Shizuku made pass after infernal pass at him, sometimes descending upon him from the heights, sometimes coming from below, sometimes coming in from oblique angles that made it hard for him to judge her rate of closure. On about a third of these attempts she was able to rake him with her claws, sending his scales flying. Each time she managed to wound him he felt like a hot iron was being laid into his skin, but for Nausicaä's sake he doggedly shook the pain off and continued to evade.

The Princess, meanwhile, was not idle. She took it upon herself to track Shizuku and tell Haku which way to break to dodge her. Again and again she also implored the angry spirit to stop and listen, but to no avail.

"We come in peace!" she tried.

"How can a dragon like that come in peace?" Shizuku fired back. "And you were sent by that awful hag. I can never believe someone such as you, son-killer."

"Son-killer? What are you talking about? I never—no..."

"Yes. You killed him, who trusted you." The phoenix ascended and easily flew formation on the dragon, flying off to Nausicaä's starboard. "I believe his name was Ohma. Don't you remember?"

"How... how do you know that?"

"This is my world. Here, I know everything."

"I didn't kill him," Nausicaä said, more to herself than Shizuku. "That's not true..."

"Think how he must've felt when he learned you were wishing him death all along," Shizuku said. "What better way to murder a person to betray them? And yet you called him your son. Oh, yes, don't look so surprised. I'm sure he was able to figure that out before he died. He was much smarter and nobler than you gave him credit for being. That is why I trust neither of you. Water spirit who is the lackey of the woman who drove me here, and daughter of Jhil who sacrificed others for her goal."

_Don't listen to her, Nausicaä,_ Haku said fiercely. _She's twisting everything._

_Why won't you listen?_ taunted Shizuku in return. _Because you're afraid that I might be speaking the truth?_

_I'm no lackey of Zeniiba's, I follow her as I wish to,_ Haku shot back. _And Nausicaä didn't sacrifice others. They died willingly for her._ And each time they did, a part of her died with them, _you know-it-all._ Anger caused a snarl to escape his mouth. _If this is who you really are, Shizuku, I don't know why we're even bothering trying to help you._

_I can't remember who I am,_ Shizuku said, as if it explained everything. _In fact, I know more about you two than I know myself. And since you don't belong here, I will remove you before you taint my world too much. Say your farewells, dragon, Princess._ The phoenix climbed for another attack.

_I'll keep avoiding her for as long as I can,_ sent Haku, twisting around to look at her. _See if you can contact any of our friends and tell them... Nausicaä?_

The brown-haired young woman was staring straight ahead. Tears were tracking down her cheeks.

"Yes, she's right. I did wish Ohma death. I was afraid of him. Oh, I'm so dirty. I have so much blood on my hands... Haku, listen to me. You said you couldn't fight her because I was with you. Well, I'll relieve you of the burden. Fight her. Save yourself."

Before the river spirit could react, the Princess threw herself off him. A claw reached out and almost caught her, but she, graceful as a plunging shearwater, pushed it away and plummeted to her doom.


	6. Counting Every Sparrow that Falls

COUNTING EVERY SPARROW THAT FALLS FROM HEAVEN

_Nausicaä!_

Haku watched as the Child of the Wind dove away from him. There was nothing he could do: even as he tried to go after her, the phoenix slammed into him from above, grasping him tight with talons as sharp as shards of glass and snapping at his nape with its hooked beak.

The heat burned him. Haku roared in pain and violently wriggled to try and throw the bird off. When that failed, he grappled with the raptor for several precious seconds to free himself.

"I shall eat your heart when I've slain you," the phoenix hissed as she clawed the dragon.

_You think I'll let you do that?_ Haku snapped back. _Shizuku, stop this madness! We're here to help you!_

A thin cry from somewhere high above came to their attention as they continued to fight with each other. Phoenix spun with dragon and looked up to see a human-shaped shadow falling out of the sky, just like Nausicaä.

------oOo------

"He1p!" cried Haru despondently. "Toto! Someone! Anyone! Help me!"

She was terrified and confused. One moment she was backing away from the Neko-jou, the next she was falling through the floor and then darkness, to find herself under a louring sky over an endless ocean.

Scanning below her, she saw two monstrous shapes that appeared to be struggling with each other. One was whitish and snake-like, while the other looked like an eagle on fire.

Seeing that they were her only possible source of help, Haru tried to adjust herself so her fall would angle nearer to them. She had never gone skydiving before, but now seemed as good a time as any to try its techniques out.

"Help!" she screamed again.

------oOo------

"Where are all you interlopers coming from?" Shizuku asked as she contemplated the falling figure. "I shall have to find out whoever's—"

She never finished the sentence, for at that moment Haku bit into her leg. She shrieked and let go of him, and he used to opportunity to separate from her and rush down after Nausicaä.

"You bastard!" the phoenix-woman railed. "I'll get you for that! Your death will be slow and agonizing!"

Just then Haru, who had made a mistake in her calculations and maneuvering, rammed into the back of her head feet-first. The tremendous speed at which they hit each other broke Haru's legs; Shizuku, given strength by her supernatural nature, was spared such a fate, but the impact stunned her, and as Haru tumbled down her neck and back she dropped like a stone from the sky.

------oOo------

Rolling through the blowtorch-hot flames on the monster's back wasn't as painful as Haru had expected. There was a couple of seconds' sensation of being seared by a pain like no other she had ever experienced, then she surprisingly felt very sleepy and pain-free. The fact that she couldn't feel her legs somehow didn't seem to bother her as she slid off the bird's back.

_Uh-oh,_ she thought drowsily, watching the horizon rotate and the vast ocean come into view as she fell. _Not again._

------oOo------

Haku, unaware of what was transpiring above him, swore silently as he raced after Nausicaä. She was a dot already, a speck without color nearing the deep-blue water.

_I'll never get to her in time!_ he thought despairingly. He was about to force himself faster when he saw something hurtle towards Nausicaä, at an angle much shallower than his but with terrific speed.

The river spirit watched in wonder as a pair of white-feathered wings unfolded themselves to their full length and breadth. He could see them visibly slow down, splaying out in the thicker air above the water, acting as brakes. They flashed over Nausicaä, and she was gone from sight.

_I have her,_ sent a not-unfamiliar voice. _She's safe, beloved Haku._

Haku raised his brows. _Angel?_

_Yes. You are needed elsewhere. Look above._

Haku did as the mysterious girl asked, and saw a pair of dots also falling out of the sky. He climbed to assist them.

------oOo------

Shizuku groaned as she shook her head. Her head throbbed painfully. As she regained her vision, she noticed two things. One was that she had transformed back into a human, and was wearing a diaphanous white dress. The other was that a smoking Haru was plummeting only a few feet away from her, her body from the chest down a solid, sooty black.

_Haru?_ she thought woozily. _Haru! I remember! Good Heavens, I remember!_

She eased herself closer to the falling girl, catching hold of one flapping jacket sleeve and using it to pull her into a protective embrace. As she hauled Haru closer she could see that she was very badly burned. So burned, in fact, that most of her clothes and hair were gone, except for the upper part of her jacket and blouse and her underwear. There were portions where her skin consisted more of charred ash than of flesh. And in her belly was an opening the size of a dinner plate, and Shizuku thought she could see...

"No..." She averted her gaze, her whisper lost in the rushing wind. The words she had used on Nausicaä came back to haunt her. _You killed him. You killed him. And yet you called him son._ Now here she was, with someone she considered her own child... and she had killed her too.

"Haru! I'm so sorry! Forgive me for hurting you!"

"Mmm... sensei? Is that you? I'm... I'm so glad to see you... Why are you crying?"

"I-I never thought I'd see you again..."

Haru smiled lazily at her. "Me too. Waitaminute, you're... you're supposed to be dead, so how come... am I dead too? Is this heaven? Why are we falling instead of flying?"

"'Cause people can't live in the sky," Shizuku answered through her tears. "No, this isn't Heaven. This is a Hell I made."

"But if you only put a little green land, sensei, it would look so pretty..."

"I know where to find some, dear. Just go to sleep and I'll bring you there."

"'Kay, if you say so..." Haru closed her eyes. Shizuku hoped it wasn't for good.

A long white length flashed upwards past her. She turned her head to follow it as it made a vertical U-turn and came alongside.

"Master Haku!" she yelled into the wind. "I need your help!"

_In what way?_ the dragon asked as it looked at her.

"I'm rattled and can't use my power," she said. "Give me a ride. I must save this girl!"

The dragon bobbed its head and maneuvered so that Shizuku could ride on its back. Haku gradually pulled out of his dive around three hundred meters above the water and came upon Angel, who was bearing Nausicaä beneath her, holding on to her outstretched arms.

_Need help?_

_No, thank you._ The girl with the ash-flaxen hair and white wings smiled sweetly at him. _We can manage. Right, Nausicaä?_

"Uh, of-of course," stammered the Princess, looking down. Nothing separated the soles of her boots from the ocean surface hundreds of feet below.

_I have to go ahead,_ said Haku. _Shall I see you later?_

_Uh-huh. Go on, shoo. We'll be all right._

The dragon left in a flash and was soon swallowed up in the distance. Angel was content to fly placidly along. The weight of Nausicaä hanging beneath her seemed to faze her not a bit.

"Thanks," said the Princess, smiling gratefully at her savior. "I knew you'd come to rescue me."

_Oh, you did, did you? _For a moment the merest hint of a frown crossed the normally serene face. To Nausicaä it was as if someone had dropped an artillery shell directly on her head. Of all her accomplishments in life, being the only one to get the sweet, mute girl annoyed was not a desirable achievement.

_You put yourself in danger and relied on me to get you out of it? That's... so unlike you, Princess._

"I didn't have a choice," Nausicaä said contritely. "If I stayed with Haku we would've both been killed. And I was feeling so wretched about what Shizuku–"

_Who's she?_

"She was the one riding on Haku's back. You know, the smaller woman."

_Oh. You were saying?_

"Never mind, Angel. I suddenly don't feel like talking about it any more."

_Something about Ohma, yes?_

Nausicaä sighed. "Yes."

_I'm sure Ohma knew you had to do what you had to do. Even at the end, he called you 'Mother,' didn't he? If he was smart enough to know you feared him, he surely was also smart enough to disregard that fear. The decisions you had to make were not easy ones._

"You... you were listening, weren't you? To Shizuku and I, a while ago?"

Angel smiled inscrutably down at the hanging wind-rider. _I am always with you, in spirit and flesh, in storm and zephyr, in happiness and sorrow._

"Angel..."

_I know what you're going to say. I'd love to tell you who I am and why I know these things, but I can't. You'll know the answers, in time. Please don't press me for them, or I'll drop you into the sea._

"You wouldn't dare."

_Well, you _were _telling Kushana what a lovely thing a bath was after a long journey before you came to the Cat Kingdom, _Angel remarked.

"That was then. This is now."

_Just kidding. Arms about to come out of their sockets yet?_

"A little. I spent so much time with Haku I think I'm going to grow scales any minute."

_Nausicaä?_

"Yes?"

_Close your eyes._

The Princess did, and when she opened them again they were standing under a sunny sky, on a verdant sward the likes of which she had always dreamed of walking on but knew was forever out of her reach, thanks to her people's adaptation to their world's pollution. They faced what appeared to be a giant closed flower of some sort. Its petals were translucent and gave off a soft white-silver glow.

"What? Where?"

_We're here, way ahead of Haku. It's lovely being in a world like this,_ Angel mused. _You can do so many things in it._ She wordlessly took hold of Nausicaä's hands. _Farewell again, Child of the Wind._

"No, Angel, don't do this to me..."

With powerful flaps of her wings the enigmatic girl rose into the air. Nausicaä remained standing in the vortex she created, squinting her eyes against the debris and the glare of the sunlight.

_Don't count on me to get you out of trouble,_ were her parting words. _I won't always be there to help you, understand? Take care of yourself. There will be at least two boys who will be very sad if they lose you._ Then she rose higher and higher into the sky until she vanished into the clouds.

Nausicaä sighed and looked down at her feet. There was something lying on the fine-shorn grass, and she knelt down and picked it up.

It was a feather, a small, downy one. For some reason, whenever they met Angel always left a feather behind. It was the only proof of her existence.

_But when I leave this place, I'll lose this one,_ Nausicaä thought. She contemplated the now-empty sky as she tucked the memento in her belt pouch. _I wonder when we'll meet again._

------oOo------

True to Angel's word Haku arrived about an hour later, hurtling over the surrounding mountains and arrowing across the lake to the island she was on. Shizuku immediately dismounted and, bearing the horrifically injured Haru in her arms, walked into the closed flower straight through a petal, instructing the pair to wait for her.

Haku turned back into a human and flopped onto the grass at the base of the structure, groaning. He stretched his legs out. "I swear, I'm never, _ever_ going to do this again..."

Nausicaä sat down beside him. Fell down, actually, since her joints were aching so much she didn't want to put weight on them as much as possible. "You and I both," she agreed. "What about your wounds?"

"I'll live." He chuckled. "If this persists when we get back, I'll wangle some tender loving care from Chihiro-chan. Ouch."

The Princess plopped onto the grass, made a pillow of her hands, put her head on them, and then closed her eyes, savoring the warmth of the sunshine. "I was surprised when I saw Shizuku on your back. What made her have a change of heart?"

"I'm not sure... but I think Haru has something to do with it."

Nausicaä opened her eyes. "Haru?"

"Didn't you recognize her?"

"Was that her? I thought that was someone else..."

"She's been terribly hurt. It was unintentional, really." Haku narrated what had happened, based on what Shizuku had told him on their flight over.

"Of all the things that could happen, this is one I never expected," commented Nausicaä after Haku had finished his story. "I just hope she'll be okay."

"I think she will. Shizuku has power over everything here." He chuckled, but it was an utterance strangely devoid of mirth. "Humans. Always got to lord it over everything else."

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, nothing."

------oOo------

Long did they wait for anyone to come out of the flower, which Haku told Nausicaä was a lotus bud, or at least an oversized representation of one. It was well into the afternoon when they gave voice to their worries, which had been quietly building all day long.

"I hope they're alright," Nausicaä said, looking at the rounded, softly-glowing structure.

"Yeah. Want to see if we can find a way in?"

"But she told us to wait here–"

"Do you want to do that?"

Nausicaä shook her head.

"Under the circumstances, I think we may be excused for intruding."

They marched around the entire circumference of the structure, but found no entrance of any sort.

Haku eyed the top of the bud. "Hmm... I wonder." He positioned himself and beckoned. "Come on, Nausicaä. Piggy-back."

Nausicaä obliged, and as Haku lifted her he groaned. "You're heavy, you know that? You must be eating well nowadays." His feet came unstuck from the earth.

"You're just tired," the Princess retorted, smiling at his back as they flew up. "Speaking of eating, do you feel hungry?"

"No. You?"

"Uh-uh. I've been wondering at that."

"Oh."

They landed on the top, which consisted of little more than the edges of the petals all bunched together to form a solid roof. In the center was a hole, big enough for a person to squeeze through.

"I knew it," Haku said triumphantly. "I'll go in first."

When Nausicaä clambered down the brightly-lit hole she found that there was no floor beneath. A floating Haku urged her to let go, and she fell into his waiting arms. Both of them floated silently into the cavernous chamber inside, into its pearly luminosity.

There was nothing inside save a bed of stalks which shed little balls of light, on which lay Haru Yoshioka, motionless. Her clothes and hair had somehow been restored, and provided the only splash of color in the place. Her patchwork jacket had been carelessly strewn on the floor, while the silk blouse and camisole top she had worn underneath had been pushed up to reveal her belly. Above this Shizuku had placed her hands, and an actinic light was issuing forth from them as Haku and Nausicaä descended.

Haku landed and gently let the Princess onto her feet. As they watched, Shizuku brought a fingertip to her lips, then took it away as she bent over Haru and kissed her.

Haru's back arched, as if in agony. She let in a shuddering breath and Shizuku collapsed, falling first against the stalk-bed, then onto the smooth, flawless ground.

With a cry of alarm the two ran towards them. Haku picked Shizuku up and was relieved to discover her weak but apparently okay. Nausicaä went to see to Baron's former girlfriend.

With a wavering smile Shizuku looked up at Haku. "So fortunate to see you here. Could you... could you please see if she's okay?"

Before Haku could move, Nausicaä signaled to him with a nod.

"Yes, she is. Are you hurt?" He brushed away a streak of blood from Shizuku's lips.

"I'll be fine. I needed blood to... wake her, so I bit myself." She held her right hand up. The index finger was bleeding.

"I can help you with that."

"No need. Put me on the floor. I wish to rest..."

"What about Haru?" asked Haku as he lowered her onto the cool gray surface.

"She'll be fine now. I must ask you to bear with me a little while longer. When I wake, we will talk."

"Okay."

"Master Haku?"

"Yes?"

"Don't go out any more. To revive Haru I had to give up a lot of my power. You will die instantly if you venture outside—the world out there is disappearing as we speak. I'm sorry I forgot to call you. I was so worried about her..."

Haku nodded. "I understand. Sleep now."

Shizuku closed her eyes.

------oOo------

"You know what this reminds me of?" Nausicaä said as they stood beside the recumbent, still-unconscious, and newly-healed Haru.

"What?"

"The Ohmu. Their tendrils looked like this." Nausicaä touched a stalk's glowing tip, and it gave off little bits of light with a very faint tinkling noise. They watched them float downwards, to wink out of existence as they touched the floor. "How I loved to watch the spores drift down in the Forest of Corruption." She gestured towards the sleeping girl. "It was like the snowfall in their world. Haku, do you really love Chihiro?" Nausicaä suddenly blurted out. "I know I shouldn't be asking this, so I'm sorry if I've given offense."

Haku didn't speak for a while. "No, it's alright. She's very dear to me. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. It must rankle, having to wait for her to grow up."

To her surprise, the river spirit chortled. "I have the whole of eternity to wait, if I must. What's a decade or two compared to that?"

"But you're so old, and she's so young."

"Like they say, age doesn't matter, does it? I can't very well start courting her now, or I'll rightfully be accused of being a cradle-snatcher. Besides, I think she still needs some more time to mature and be her own person."

"Well, don't wait too long. We humans don't live forever, you know." Nausicaä paused. "I wonder what _he_ has to say about that."

"He?"

"You know."

"Oh. Why don't you go and ask him?"

"I can't. Believe it or not, if we hadn't gone to the Cat Kingdom I wouldn't have been able to return to his world, because there wouldn't have been anyone to take me there." Nausicaä looked at the floor. "He won't live forever either."


	7. Shizuku's Decision

**Author's Note:** A slight change in direction. I've decided to truncate this story and save one of the plot points for another piece. It's not nice to enter the new year with something left unfinished...

* * *

**SHIZUKU'S DECISION**

Haru Yoshioka woke up groaning. Her head ached, her skin felt like it was being jabbed by a thousand little fiery needles, her nose felt stuffy, and her legs throbbed. Did she eat something she was allergic to again? And where was her quilt? It was just as well her bed seemed unusually comfortable today.

She opened her eyes to complain to the world at large, and found that the world had been taken away. Or that at least her room was gone. In its place was a blank whiteness, and a familiar person looking down at her, smiling.

With a gasp she grabbed the other person's wrist, shuddering and closing her eyes. "Sensei! It's you! It's really you!"

She impulsively tried to sit up and was rewarded with sharp pains shooting up from her legs and abdomen. Her yelp caused Shizuku to reach out and steady her.

"Easy," the woman in the white dress said softly. "I've healed you, but your body still thinks it's been hurt. It'll be a while before the pain disappears completely."

"Hurt?" Haru frowned. "I... I can't remember anything, except for thinking I'd made a _huge_ mistake just before I hit that large bird made of fire..."

Shizuku hooded her eyes, and some of the happiness on her face vanished. "That was me, Haru."

"You?"

Nodding, Shizuku laid her slowly back down on the comfy bed. "I was fighting Haku and Nausicaä. I was afraid—I'd forgotten who I was, till I saw you again."

"They're here?"

"Yes." Shizuku inclined her head at something above the level of Haru's head, and she tilted it up until she had an upside-down view of a blue-clad, brown-haired young lady and a young man in blue and white robes.

Nausicaä gave her a nod and a small, fleeting smile.

Haru raised a hand in greeting, then returned her attention to Shizuku. "What're they doing here?"

"They're trying to persuade me to do one thing or the other."

"Oh? And what is it?"

"To either go on to the afterlife, or stay with you or go back to my own world."

Haru blinked. "Have you decided?" she asked, her voice soft and quiet.

"Well... if you were in my shoes, Haru-chan, what would you decide?"

"I... well, I..." Haru looked away and became lost in thought. She knew what she wanted to say; she didn't think it would be right for her to say it. It was Shizuku's life, and her decision to make.

"It's not my place to say, sensei," she finally said. "Though I guess you know what I'd tell you."

"I know, Haru." Shizuku gently turned the younger woman to face her. Her countenance had become serious and sad. "Which is why it pains me all the more to tell you that while you were sleeping I came to a decision. I'm going back to my world."

Haru, who had been looking steadily into her eyes as she spoke, now averted them.

"It's not every day someone gets a second chance at life, dear," continued Shizuku. "Please don't be upset."

"Upset? Me? Oh, no, no. I had just assumed all along that we... that you were going to stay."

"I'd like to, but I'd miss my husband terribly. Haru? Come on, out with it."

Haru sighed and broke into a wavering smile. "So I guess this means goodbye, huh? Darn, I got something in my eye."

Shizuku smiled back. "Don't be ashamed to wear your heart on your sleeve, Haru. That's a part of me which is also to be found within you." She took hold of Haru's hand and squeezed it. "It won't be goodbye yet. I still have to go back to the Cat Kingdom for a short while. So if you can spare the time, you can still come and visit me while I'm there."

"Sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"A thought just occurred to me. Why can't I go to your world too? You know, to visit?"

Shizuku looked up. "Nausicaä-hime?"

"I won't claim to be an expert at it, but it's possible," the wind-rider said, folding her arms but not budging from where she stood. "However, the way it works is unique to each of us: the Baron and the cats need portals, for example. For some all they need to do is think about it really hard and walk through a doorway. Others like Haku and Yu-baaba, because they're more entrenched in their realities, need to cast spells. Still others have no control at all when it happens. Like me."

"Well, how _do_ I get to sensei's world?"

Nausicaä shook her head. "I'm sorry, Haru. That's something only you can find out."

"Then that means it'll never happen!"

"For some, it never does," Nausicaä agreed quietly. She was thinking of Lord Yupa, and Teto, and Kushana's cavalrymen, and Ohma... and her own father and mother.

Haru turned a distraught face to Shizuku. "Sensei! Don't go! There's no guarantee we'll ever meet again! You heard her!"

"But Haru-chan..."

"Enough." It was Haku, and his voice was cold and stern. "Will you let your selfishness get in the way of her happiness? Are you that mean and self-centered?"

"But—oh, sensei. Alright, I'll come see you as much as I can. Hey, wait a minute! Why can't you come to my house, stay there for a while?"

Shizuku thought. "Now there's an idea. But it's going to conflict with what I have in mind, Haru. I need to lie low for just a bit longer."

"What's going to happen to your family when you return to your own world?" asked Nausicaä.

"You leave everything to me. I'll take care of that," Shizuku reassured her, giving her a thumbs-up sign. "All I need now is my journal."

Haru sat back up—more slowly this time—and said, "It's too bad you won't be able to attend Baron's wedding."

Shizuku smirked. "I wouldn't be so sure of that."

------oOo------

When everything was settled Haku contacted Zeniiba and asked that they be brought back to their bodies. He also gave her Shizuku's answer, which enabled her to prepare for what needed to be done next.

Haru was mightily embarrassed when she found herself lying beside Shizuku on a bed. Before she could edge away Machida rushed to her and picked her up, crushing her in his arms.

"You careless idiot," he whispered again and again, his voice husky with emotion as he twirled her round. "You careless, careless idiot." As her view changed Haru saw cat magicians either getting to their feet or quietly meditating cross-legged in their multi-level niches around the room, and some collapsing, to be attended to by those who were their apprentices or helpers, presumably. She found Shizuku also getting up, and Seiji-sensei a few meters away, standing motionless watching her.

"Shizuku!" he bellowed, his voice cracking. He rushed over to her and gave her a big hug, lifting her off her feet. It turned out that underneath the sheet Shizuku had been wearing the white dress Haru had seen her in earlier.

"Kei-chan," Haru whispered back as her arms went around him. Machida stopped spinning, and Haru found herself looking on as Pazu lent a solicitous hand to Nausicaä, who had thrown her cover off and was gingerly getting out of her own bed. He had Sheeta, already awake, firmly pressed against his side.

Nausicaä was smiling at him. "A race it is, then," she said cryptically, just before Selm stepped forward and led her to a waiting physician to be looked at.

"Haru?"

"What? Oh, sorry. How long was I... gone?"

"To be precise, four hours, six minutes, and... fifteen seconds."

"I see. Kei-chan?"  
"Yeah?"

"If you ever hear me complain about little things, kindly remind me how lucky I am to be alive, will you?"

Machida pulled his head back and looked at her, puzzlement written on his face. "Sure. I'll gladly do that, seeing as how you're okay enough to listen to it."

"And something else."

"What? Name it."

"Pucker up."

Their kiss was cut short by a screech. Turning to look, they found Shizuku standing there with her hands at the small of her back.

"Eeek!" she wailed. "It's already starting!"

Natoru stepped forward, bearing the familiar thin-necked crimson carafe in his hands. "Would you like to—"

"Thanks, but maybe later," Shizuku said, bowing to the First Secretary. "I've always wanted to know what it felt like to be a cat."

"As you wish, Lady Shizuku. I'll keep this ready."

Haru signaled for the carafe. Natoru provided her a small cup, and she took a sip, and persuaded Machida to drink as well.

"Aren't we supposed to pay for this?" Machida asked.

"Oh, no. This is free, courtesy of King Lune's father. Who is very sorry about what happened to you, Miss Haru."

"Where is he? I want to tell him it's okay, I just got startled, I think."

There was a commotion elsewhere in the room. A couple of people—mainly cat magicians and Lune's staff, but also two _furisonde_-wearing _yuna_ and several fox-women and an _aogaeru_ newly-arrived from Aburaya—were clustered around Haku's bed. Chihiro had impulsively leapt on him as he stood up, and now they were sprawled on it in a tangle of limbs. The fourteen-year-old was blushing a furious red.

"Scandalous!" said one of the fox-girls.

"How can he stand her?" whispered one of the_ yuna_ to another.

"Heheheh!" chuckled the frog-man. "Save it for the wedding night, you two!"

"Oh, shut up," Haku grumbled as Chihiro got off him and he sat at bed's edge. "If you don't stop it, I'll turn all of you into flatworms and turn Chihiro into a fish and let her eat you up."

"Blech!" Chihiro protested, sticking out her tongue. "I'm not eating any worms!"

"Trust me," Haku rejoined tiredly, "when you're a carp you'll love it."

"Hey, you layabouts!" It was Yu-baaba, who was still in her chair. "I didn't tell you to come here so you could stand around yakking like that! Move your limbs, not your mouths! How's my bath?"

"All ready, ma'am!" the bathhouse workers chorused.

"We just have to fill it up," said the _aogaeru._

"Well, then, get to it! After doing this for so long I feel I need a special bath! Rin!"

The fox-spirit entered the room and moved towards her boss. She had just shaken off a persistent cat suitor in the corridor, who seemed to find her his type even though she technically was a canid, and a _kami_ as well. "Yes'm?"

"Help me up, will you? My bones are aching." Her giant frame tottering, Yu-baaba bid a brusque good-bye to her sister and to Howl and to everyone else and walked slowly out of the room.

------oOo------

With the spell gone, Haru was able to return home within minutes, through the agency of a spell from Cameron and two other cat magicians. She went with Machida, but when she invited Shizuku and Seiji to come with them they declined.

"I'll be along later," the older woman said. "I have some things to take care of first. And don't worry, I know where you live."

Haru laughed. "I'm sure you do. Well, see you, then. Not for the last time yet. Not yet! See you, everyone!"

Her otherworldly friends bid her goodbye as she and Machida stepped through the glowing, man-sized portal, straight into Haru's living room.

And straight in front of a very surprised Naoko Yoshioka, who stood there and let her mouth gape and her glass of water fall onto her brown leather travel bag.

For one shocked moment Haru wished she and Machida could turn invisible. "Mom! I thought you weren't coming home till tomorrow!"

"I was, but your Aunt Yahagi called and requested for me to be at her workshop tomorrow, so I had to come home ahead of time."

"I... ah, heheh, you must be, um, wondering what this all means." As Haru spoke, the portal disappeared, like a picture being scrolled up into nothingness.

"A bit," her mother conceded calmly.

"The truth is—"

"It's, um, my father's newest special effects system that we're evaluating," Machida tried.

"Oh, really?" Naoko Yoshioka seemed to recover somewhat. Her brows went up, and a glowering expression began to show itself on her features. She stepped over her wet bag and gave Haru's cheek a pinch and pull.

"You'll have to do better than that," she said threateningly. "Much, much better."

"Ah... do you remember the time when you told me I could talk to cats when I was a kid?"

"Uh-huh."

"And, uh, do you remember what we talked about before, about, um, Kei and myself and my 'other man'?"

Machida raised an eyebrow.

"Of course."

"Well, brace yourself, because what I have to tell you is a doozy..."

------oOo------

"I swear, Mom, it's the absolute truth," Haru stammered as they sat round the small dining table. She had seen the thunderclouds gathering on her mother's normally benign face and tried to head them off. "May I get struck by lightning if I'm lying to you."

"I didn't believe it myself at first, Auntie," Machida chimed in. "But she _is_ telling the truth." He turned to Haru. "Why don't you get a couple of those friends of yours to pay a visit?"

"Oh, I don't know about that," Haru said, wincing. "Baron'll probably cut me to pieces for spilling the beans. And _then_ Muta will probably say something mean to me, just before he gobbles me up."

"Baron?" parroted Mrs. Yoshioka. "Is he royalty?" The thought of Haru being involved with the upper crust of society made her perk up a bit.

"Sort of. He's... a cat statue who comes to life."

"_What?_"

"You heard me."

"I won't let my daughter have a relationship with a cat!"

"Uh, Mom, he isn't really a cat. He's a cat _statue._ And besides, he's already getting married to someone else."

"Well, I certainly won't have you as his mistress!"

"I'm not! At least, not any more."

"Haru!"

"Oh, Mom, I use that word loosely. I didn't do anything except kiss him, I swear." Machida opened his mouth to speak, but before he could cut loose she said to him, "And no 'hairball' comments, okay?"

"I wasn't going to say anything like that."

------oOo------

In the end, amid all the November rush, not only did Shizuku and Seiji pay a visit to Haru's, but Baron and the staff of the Cat Business Office did so as well. It was a sight to see: a young married couple sitting on the living room couch, flanked by cats left and right, with a certain someone in an Evening Coat and someone else in a maroon walking-dress seated beside them, their feet dangling off the edge, calmly consuming a cup of tea and a bit of pastry each.

"I can see now that Haru was telling the truth," Mrs. Yoshioka said. She was sitting in a chair opposite, trying very much not to gawk and more than a bit intimidated by the Baron's suavity and sang-froid. "It must have been difficult for her to live a double life."

"Indeed," the Baron submitted. "If you'll believe me, she's now quite famous in some parts. I couldn't have rescued my fiancée without her help and encouragement. Your daughter is not only a very good swordswoman, but a fine young lady as well."

"Yeah," Renaldo Moon seconded from his perch on Shizuku's lap. "Who cares if she doesn't look good in a bikini–"

"Muta!" everyone shushed him. Shizuku covered his mouth with her hand, while Moon groaned and covered his face with a paw.

"You must excuse him," Luna apologized. "That's just how he speaks."

"I'll say," muttered Haru, her face glowing pink as she cast a murderous glance at the fat cat.

Muta wriggled free of Shizuku's restraining palm. "I was gonna say that it's what's inside that counts," he continued, "and that she's too hypersensitive about her looks."

The tête-à-tête continued until very late, with Mrs. Yoshioka bringing out a pot roast and rolls and wonderfully fluffy rice, as well as sushi and a _shoyu_ dip and wine for dinner. If anyone had managed to peer past the blinds that Haru had hastily erected in preparation for the meeting, they would have seen a little group engrossed in their own little world, learning about each other.

It was one AM when the visitors left. They thanked Mrs. Yoshioka for the repast, and Haru walked with them to the bus stop while her boyfriend and her mother stayed behind to clean up. Machida had offered to chaffeur them home to Chikyuuya, but Shizuku, wanting to spend as much time as possible with Seiji and Baron and the others, begged off.

"It's a good thing you didn't tell her everything about yourself," Haru whispered to Shizuku as they walked down the street, which was silent except for the scuffling of their feet and the occasional hum of an air conditioner. The one or two faces that watched them ambling along seemed oblivious to the Cats, or to the fact that two grown women and one man were talking to their feline companions.

"No, that's not something you can bandy about so lightly," returned Shizuku. "Think about how you felt when you learned that. You want her to feel the same way?"

"Oh, I think my mother can handle it. But I won't tell her."

"You sure about that?"

"Uh-huh. I'd rather... spare her the things I went through."

"You love your mom that much, eh?" Seiji ventured.

"Of course I do."

"Good. Not everyone has that kind of a relationship with their parents. Don't lose it, Haru."

"She seemed quite lenient whenever the subject about you and Machida and I came up," said the Baron, who had his arm linked with Louise's and was walking sedately beside them.

"That's because she trusts me enough to handle things like those. But she's also good at hiding her feelings... I hope she isn't mad at me because I lied to her."

"Haru, if I were her I wouldn't be," said Louise. "I'd understand. What did you say, Moon?" she asked, hearing the cat beside her mumble.

Moon shook his head.

"Brother," warned Luna, giving him a nudge.

"Nothing. I said she seemed like a lonely woman, at times."

------oOo------

The next morning Mrs. Yoshioka was quite relaxed when she handed a piece of paper over to her daughter after breakfast.

"What's this?"

"A list of demands. Don't read it now. You can read it while you're on the train. Go on, or you'll be late for class! And I'll talk to Moriyama-san for you, okay? I'll see if I can persuade her to give you your boarding room back."

"Thanks, Mom! You're the best!" Giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, Haru ran out the doors to the waiting Hiromi and Machida.

Mrs. Yoshioka settled back to enjoy her tea. She wondered what her daughter's reaction would be when she read the list. Kids. She always knew that you had to let them live their own lives, make their own mistakes, stumble, fall and get up again all by themselves; it was just that she never really thought she'd reach that point with Haru. At 42, the thought made her feel positively _old._

Of course, that didn't necessarily abrogate the fact that she was Haru's mother.

------oOo------

"W-what _is_ this? Item one, you will not engage in acts of derring-do without my consent and without Baron around. Item two, there is to be no going to the Cat Kingdom without informing me. Item three..." Haru's incredulous eyes scanned the document for a few more seconds. "No way!"

Machida glanced at the paper and laughed as they entered the station. "You've got to admit, she's hooked you now. I'll be amazed if you can wriggle out of this one, Haru-chan."

"Oh, keep quiet, will you!"


	8. Goodbye

**Author's Note:** Well, this is it, the end of the story. Hope you enjoyed--or at least tolerated--reading this.

* * *

**GOODBYE**

The next weekend after Shizuku and Seiji's visit Haru was summoned again, but this time not to the Cat Castle but to a lonely place in the Spirit World, past Zeniiba's house in Swamp Bottom.

The place was full of mist, a solid portion in the middle of the bog which made strange sounds around her as she stood with the others in front of an aged _torii_. The structure was an unhealthy variegated black in color, framing a path which ran into the grayness amid a tunnel of willows and other trees laden with moss. With her were Haku, Zeniiba, Nausicaä, Mrs. Kusakabe, Howl, Selm, Baron, and King Lune, as witness for the Cat Kingdom. Shizuku and Seiji were also there, of course.

Shizuku stepped out in front of them and gave them all a deep, solemn bow.

"I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me," she said somberly. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused."

"Think nothing of it," Zeniiba returned. "Everything's been returned to rights, or will be shortly, and that is payment enough, Amasawa-san. I think _shocho_ would approve of what we've done."

"Are you sure this will take me back home?" Shizuku asked, indicating the path behind her.

"Yes."

Taking a deep breath, the writer turned to her husband. "You're sure you want to do this?"

Seiji nodded. Shizuku had already told him the entire truth, and he has received it with surprising equanimity. "Can you fly when you're in Iblard? Of course I am. It's not as if I'm going to leave you to do this alone, am I?"

"Okay, then." Shizuku dug into the bodice of her white dress and pulled an envelope out. "Here, Haru. This is for you."

Taking it from her, Haru eyed the packet with trepidation. "What's this?"

"Read it later, okay? That's a little surprise. A parting gift, I should call it."

"Sensei, again?"

"No, nothing shocking this time," Shizuku assured her. "I'll miss you."

"Me too."

Hesitantly Shizuku stepped to her and gave her a hug. "I hope you don't mind. We might never get to do this again."

Haru returned the gesture with compound interest. "I don't mind, sensei. I really—" her voice cracked a bit "—_really_ don't mind."

The elder woman turned to another person as she and Haru broke their embrace. "Baron, I'll miss you as well. Take care of yourself."

"Likewise." The Cat kissed her on both cheeks. "Take care, little one."

"Keep an eye out for Haru's sake, will you? She's got this tendency to get herself into trouble..."

"No I don't!" protested the younger woman. "Things just happen to me, that's all."

"I think that's true," Lune interposed. "And I'm thankful that they do happen. If she hadn't saved me from the truck, she would never have come to my father's attention, but I would be dead right now."

An impish grin grew on Shizuku's face. "Whatever you guys say. I won't insist I'm right. Obaa-sama," she said to Zeniiba, "please take care of my journal."

"Of course. It'll be safe with me." Shizuku had spent the past days writing in it, at a feverish pace. None but the old sorceress knew what she had set down, but it had to be important: they were told that they could never read it until many years had passed.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Shizuku said, the awkwardness in her voice apparent. "Seiji?" She stretched a hand out.

Her husband took it, and without a further word their feet began to move down the path. They carried nothing with them but the clothes they wore.

Haru watched them walk down the green-gray tunnel until the mist had swallowed them up completely. Several silent seconds passed.

"Goodbye... okaa-san."

------oOo------

Arm in arm, she and Baron trudged back to Zeniiba's little cottage along with the others.

"I'm glad our woes have now ended," commented Baron. They were at the rear of the group, and the others were some distance apart from them, perhaps thinking that they—Haru especially—needed the space. After all, she had just said farewell to someone who was dear to her.

"Yeah." Haru gave the Cat's forearm a press. "Have you decided yet?"

"Decided what?"

"When you'll get married?"

"No. Louise and I can't agree on a specific date. I'd like December, but she says she never wanted to be a winter bride."

"I'd rather get married in the spring," said Haru.

"You are?"

"What?"

"Getting married?"

"Crazy! No! I was just thinking that if I were to get married, I'd rather do so when the cherry blossoms are blooming."

"They were late this year."

"I know."

On they went in silence, and after some minutes Baron spoke again.

"Haru, I'm glad you were able to come to terms with Machida."

"Yes, but not without price." Haru smiled wanly at the Cat. "If he sees us like this he's probably going to blow an artery and disown me. And Mom would probably never let me out of her sight again."

Baron closed his eyes briefly. "I'm glad you can still joke about that. For what it's worth... I'm sorry."

"Oh, Baron. For what?"

"That I almost ruined your relationship with your boyfriend. That I made you be unfaithful."

"Baron, what's done is done. _Non, je ne regrette rien,_ as the song goes. Like I told you before, what we shared is over—take it and set it aside in memory, for that's where it belongs now."

The Cat turned to study her, his expression perturbed.

"What? Have I suddenly grown an extra nose or something?"

Baron shook his head. "You know, when you say things like that, you hardly sound like yourself. You sound... well, all grown-up."

"Me? All grown up? I hope not. Adults are so fuddy-duddy. I'm still just plain old Haru, who trips over her own feet and does what she shouldn't and ends up complicating things." She gazed straight into her former paramour's eyes, and for a moment ditched her bantering tone. "I nearly lost you, and sensei, and Kei-chan... It wouldn't have surprised me if I had gone insane at one point or another."

The Cat inclined his head. "Am I a fuddy-duddy then, Miss Haru?"

"Oh... sorry. "

"It's okay. A

"I'll welcome that. Speaking of wishes, don't you guys ever disappear on me again, you hear?"

Baron nodded.

"And speaking of sensei... I wonder what she left me." Haru took the envelope from her pocket and ripped it open. The tearing sounded obscenely loud in the oppressive silence of the swamp.

Haru read the letter, for that's what it was. Her eyes grew large, and she let out an involuntary whoop which caused everyone to jump and look at her.

"What's the matter?" Baron asked, alarmed.

"Oh, uh," stammered Haru, "sorry, everyone." She waved a hand and lowered her head, like a turtle seeking to retreat into its shell. "Sheesh. I've got to learn to stop doing that."

The aristocrat smiled. He could never tell her now, for fear of being misunderstood, but he loved the touch of her arm, the clumsiness and the muley insistence and the gamine charm, the way she had dared the impossible for what she felt was right. This was no longer the seventeen-year-old he had rescued from the Cat Kingdom years ago; and he didn't mind the change at all.

------oOo------

They all went home that day: Nausicaä and Selm, without any portals or overt magic—they were there one moment and just sort of vanished the next; Mrs. Kusakabe on board the Nekobus, with the widely-grinning King Totoro also a passenger; King Lune back to his kingdom, where the cats reigned and played all day, and Howl with him, since that was where Sophie and Michael and Calcifer were, awaiting his return. Only Zeniiba and Haku were left, because Swamp Bottom was her home, and his sometime abode, as a student of her magic. They sent Haru and Baron back, one to her dwelling in Koganei, and the other to his office.

The second she stepped out of the portal Haru ran out of the house and headed for the bus stop. It was late in the afternoon, but if she hurried she might make it to Seiseki Sakuragaoka and back before her mother's assigned curfew. It was one of the few conditions she couldn't weasel out of.

------oOo------

"_Konban wa,_" she said, bowing. "Is, um, is Amasawa Shizuku-san in?"

The person who had opened the door was a tall blond man who wore eyeglasses and was dressed in a blue pullover and dark blue slacks. He was cradling an overweight white cat in his arms. "She is, but I'm sorry, she can't see anyone. She's just come back from Italy with her husband, and is recovering from a serious illness. I could take a message, though."

Haru was about to do just that when she remembered what Shizuku had written in her letter and decided the better of it. "No, I'll come back another time, thank you."

"Who shall I say called?"

Naoko Yoshioka's only daughter turned to go. She smiled over her shoulder at the man and the familiar cat he carried.

"A friend." With a nod she walked briskly away, away from the red building with the sloped roof and the sign 'Chikyuuya' above its door, and headed back down the hill.

_I can't believe you did it,_ she rejoiced. _Thanks, sensei. Even if your double doesn't know me... thank you for caring._

THE END

* * *

"Who was that, onii-san?" 

"Some girl. Wouldn't give her name. Said she was a friend."

"Oh? I wonder who she is."

"Me too. You hungry yet?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, wait a moment. Keep an eye on Moon for me, bro."

"Sure thing. Are you feeling alright, Shizuku?"

"Why?"

"You've got that look on your face again. Concrete. You know, like a road."

"Oh, that's just awful. Seiji?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm glad we got out of that disaster."

"I told you we'd make it. You need to have a little more faith in me."

"Yes. I'm sorry I doubted you. I didn't think I'd see you again this way, standing amid all these memories. The violin-making boy from Midorichou Mukaihara Junior High who mocked me but eventually became my husband."

"Oh, Shi-chan, stop talking mush."

"I will, if you'll come over here and give me a kiss."

"Sure!"

------oOo------

"Moon?"

"Yeah, Luna?"

"Did you get your overtime pay from Muta?"

"Yeah. I got yours too, why?"

"Whew. That's a relief. I had a nightmare last night about him using our overtime pay to buy jelly rolls and coffee, and a hundred kilos of prime _maguro_. It was most... distressing."

"I'll go on strike if he ever does that. C'mon, let's go on to the shop and buy those Morita crackers Baron wanted us to get, okay?"

"Heh. I don't know why he wants them, unless he's planning to give them to Queen Yuki."

"Give them to Queen Yuki? Why?"

"She likes them, don't you know that?"

"No. But then again I haven't been the gossip poking my nose into other people's affairs."

"Hey! Take that back!"

"No, I won't. Nyaaah."

"Why you... you twerp!"

The two black cats on the small roof above a glassware shop dashed off into the maze of awnings and moldings and fire stairs and ladders, just above the heads of the people at the Crossroads.

------oOo------

"Nishi?"

"Yes?"

"You never told the little girl my name was Louise too?"

"No. I didn't get the chance. Why?"

"Oh, nothing. At least everything's fixed now. We've met, and they've met too."

"Yes. Everything's fixed now."

------oOo------

"_Shocho,_ I'm glad to report that I've finally sent everyone an invitation."

The old man with the glasses and white hair closed the book he had been perusing. "Good. Did you have any troubles?"

"Well... no, not much."

"I see. Thanks for the help, Baron. Would you care to come downstairs with me and have a bite before you leave? I know you must be very busy."

"I'd be delighted to." As the old man left the narrow confines of the book-lined conference room, the Cat peeked at the cover of the book he had left on the table. It was Margery Williams' _The Velveteen Rabbit; or, How Toys Become Real._

------oOo------

"Alright! Hold your horses, I'm coming!"

"What's that, Kei?"

"Nothing, Dad. Someone at the door. Yes, what can I..."

"Hi, sempai. Remember me, sempai? Sempai?"

"Huh? Oh, of course! Long time no see. Come on in, Chieri. What brings you here?"


End file.
